Tangling with Time
by TheCloisterBell
Summary: Okay, here goes. First ever Fanfic, please review and please be gentle with me ;) Rose breaks all the rules to find her way back to the 10th Doctor but she's put her future in jeopardy to do it and the Doctor is furious. Rubbish summary sorry. I just wanted Rose and 10 back because they were the best. I had to cheat and deviate from the series quite a bit. Sorry. Hope you like it.
1. Chapter 1

Forgot to mention. I don't own Doctor Who - I'm just having fun with it.

Chapter 1

"You stupid, STUPID girl!" the Doctor roared into her face, his fingers biting painfully into her upper arms.

She stared at him, stared through him, barely acknowledging her surroundings as her mind replayed the last few, terrifying seconds… The armed men, the gun aimed at the Doctor's face, Jack flinging himself in the way, her screaming "No!" and trying to cover Jack's body with her own as the gun went off. Then they were all three falling to the ground in a tangle of limbs until Jack pulled away and threw himself at the gunmen.

"ROSE! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU PLAYING AT?!" He demanded, shaking her to get her attention. She snapped out of her shock induced trance and looked up at him. His eyes were full of cold, dark fury and she suddenly panicked, trying desperately to look away but she was captured, frozen in his hard, black glare. She choked on the rising tide of tears.

"I… I'm sorry, I…." she begun to stammer, flushed and flustered.

"Don't you ever, EVER do anything like that again, Rose Tyler!" His harsh shouts were starting to draw the attention of nearby shoppers and people were beginning to stop and stare, the anger in his voice overpowering the perception filters' ability to keep them hidden. Rose flinched and squirmed, eyes wide and scared, trying to break free of his grasp.

"Doctor…" Jack's voice broke through, calm but serious. "Doctor, wait. Rose is hurt." 

dwdwdwdwdwdwdwdwdwdw 

It had been almost exactly two weeks since that day in Canary Wharf. The day that everything changed. And yet, inexplicably, and against all laws of time and space, everything had also stayed the same. Well, almost….

She'd lost her grip on the lever and flown into the arms of her future self. Slightly older, perhaps a bit leaner, with less makeup and a blue jacket, but still definitely her. Then, while she was still reeling from the shock of that, she'd seen her dad, or the alternate universe version of her dad, flicker into the space between herself, future Rose and the void and seeing the two Roses tangled but standing, had flickered out again. The ghost of his astonished expression stayed with Rose as the void shimmered and closed and both women tumbled to the floor as the pressure in the room suddenly righted itself.

"I haven't got long" future Rose said quickly. "I've jumped across time and space and through dimensions to get here.

I'm changing things, I'm changing your future, my present … the Doctor's future" she laughed, almost manically "…and I think, in a moment, I'm gonna disappear!"

She flashed an insane grin and then gripped Rose's arm, her expression suddenly desperate, pleading. "I couldn't stay there! Not without him. I tried but I've seen too much, done too much to ever settle for that life. And I know it's wrong, it's selfish and wrong, I know, I know…!

But this was my chance to change it, I've been thinking about this for years and I know I've created a paradox coming here and changing my future… our future. But there are so many tears in the fabric of time and space, right here, right now, that the universe won't even notice this one – just a stitch in time!" she grinned a wide, toothy grin and then her face turned serious "…I just hope he can forgive me."

Future Rose raised her eyes to look at the Doctor who was sprinting across the room towards them. Her expression was a peculiar mix of guilt, pain, longing and hope. Rose's stomach constricted into a tight knot just seeing it. Then, suddenly, the other woman was gone, just gone…! And Rose was on the floor by herself, gasping to get her breath back, turning to face the Doctor as he skidded to a halt, beside her, his trainers squeaking loudly on the cold, white floor.

She'd heard him described as the Oncoming Storm before, of course she had. But she'd never really understood what that actually meant until that moment, on that day. At that moment, on that awful day, while lying on the cold, hard floor of the white room in Torchwood, she fully appreciated that he was not human. He wasn't even close.

That was when, for the first time, she saw him how his enemies saw him.

That stony, relentless, unforgiving, full powered, furious and totally alien, glare of a Time Lord.

That glare alone was enough to make whole armies turn and flee, and for the first time ever, the full force of that glare was directed at her, Rose Tyler.

She cowered, crumbling within and instinctively tried to drag herself away from him with a fearful whimper, her body trembling as he towered over her.

The air seemed to thicken as the silence lengthened and Rose felt liquid fear pooling in her stomach, chilling her to the core until she finally managed to tear her gaze away from his.

"What did you do Rose?" He finally broke the silence, his voice was low and tight as though he were fighting to control it, and sounding all the more dangerous because of that.

"Me?" she squeaked in protest. "I didn't do anything!"

Within an instant he'd dropped so he was crouching over her, his eyes burning into hers. She tried to scramble away from him but her body was numb with shock.

"I'm serious Rose." He warned, his voice a deadly whisper. "What did you just do?"


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of its characters… sigh…

I really hope people like this. I would obviously love to see some reviews – but I'm loving writing it anyway. Okay, I've already got the first few chapters sort of where I want them so I'm posting them up now.

**Chapter 2**

Rose was stunned and alarmed to see the blood blossoming on her tee-shirt. She'd heard a sort of 'fizz' as the gun had gone off but she hadn't felt anything… but now, seeing it, it was like a switch had been flicked in her brain suddenly turning the pain to ON. She gritted her teeth. Somewhere, midway up her ribs on the left side, it felt like somebody was pressing a white-hot brand to her skin.

The Doctor quickly released his iron grip on her arms, and without paying any mind to the fact that they were in a shopping centre full of staring people, he whipped up the side of her tee-shirt to assess the injury.

"Doctor!" Rose squeaked in alarmed protest, blushing hot crimson and trying to tug the tee-shirt down to cover her exposed skin, mortification winning out over pain for a moment.

"Keep still!" he commanded harshly, as he scrutinised the wound. "Looks like it just grazed her, but it'll need cleaning up and stitching, and she'll need antibiotics." His address was aimed at Jack, he didn't look at, or even acknowledge, Rose as he clinically and unemotionally assessed her. Rose trembled a little – he was so distant and detached from her, ever since Canary Wharf. It was like she wasn't even a person anymore.

But it _wasn't_ her fault! She couldn't be held responsible for the actions of her future self… How could she be?

Although the Doctor clearly thought so. His reaction when she'd told him what her future self had said to her had been truly terrifying. She'd had a sudden insight as to what it must feel like to be a Dalek coming face to face with the Doctor in the middle of battle. At that time had almost wished that she was a Dalek, and that she too could crawl inside a metal casing and hide from his rage.

She winced and hissed, being brought sharply back to the present as the Doctor applied a wad of gauze dressing to her injury. "Sorry." He murmured quietly, his eyes very briefly flickering to hers, making her heart race for a second. "I've got nothing to secure it with, so you'll need to hold it there."

She raised her left hand to comply, but he wouldn't move his hand to let her hold the pad. She was baffled for a few moments until, with an exasperated sigh, he reached for her right hand with his other hand. For a second she was overwhelmed with relief, if they were holding hands again, maybe he had started to forgive her… but instead he pulled it against her abdomen, unlinking her eager fingers from his as he did, and placed it against the dressing so she was holding it across her body. "Like that." He told her, almost seeming to bite the words out, barely suppressed rage snapping in his eyes.

Oh, right… of course. She'd thought for one glorious second that he might be about to hold her hand like he used to. Stupid Rose! She flushed in embarrassment and tried to blink back the hot tears that were spilling out of her eyes as she looked away, hiding her face from him.

dwdwdwdwdwdw

The TARDIS wouldn't let her in. The Doctor had opened the door and gone through but as Rose had started to step over the threshold a wave of energy had exploded out of the TARDIS doors and flung her across the room. The Doctor had turned, stupefied, to see her slithering ungracefully along the floor.

"Rose?" he ran back towards her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." She gasped, struggling into a sitting position. "What was that?"

"I dunno." The Doctor looked bewildered. "What happened?"

"I was just going through the door, and it was like I was hit with a blast… I dunno, I jus' got thrown backwards." She frowned in confusion. Her confusion morphed very quickly into panic when she saw the expression change on the Doctor's face.

"Doctor?!" she cried urgently as he stared at her in something akin to terror. "Doctor, what is it?"

He was silent for a moment, just looking at her and rubbing his palm down his cheek.

"It's you, Rose." He said eventually, his voice quiet. "It's the TARDIS she…." He swallowed and took a breath. "… she doesn't want you near her."

dwdwdwdwdwdw

"Let's get out of here." The Doctor urged, bringing Rose back to the moment as he put his hand very briefly against the small of her back to hurry her along.

"What about them?" Jack asked, gesturing towards the two gunmen he'd disarmed and knocked unconscious.

"We know who sent them." The Doctor's voice promised vengeance as he glared across at the two men. "And their perception filters will keep them hidden well enough. Just leave them."

He looked at Rose for a second; she was pale and sweating, trying so hard not to cry out with the pain. His expression softened for a moment and he looked as though he was about to reach out to her but then seemed to stop himself. "Help Rose." He said, instead, looking at Jack, then turned and led them to the exit.

"Come on Rose Tyler." Jack sighed, scooping her up and carrying her out into the sunlight.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **Doesn't belong to me. Wish it did.

Would really, really love to know what you think.

**Chapter 3**

"It's you, Rose… It's The TARDIS she… she doesn't want you near her."

"Please don't leave me, Doctor!"

"I'll meet you back at your flat. I'll be there before you are."

"Come with me?"

"I'm not leaving the TARDIS here in Canary Wharf! The whole building's unstable."

"Please Doctor, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry!"

"Rose, don't. Just don't."

He'd detached her grasping, clinging fingers from the lapels of his jacket, his face set and his eyes hard.

It was the most awful bus journey she'd ever taken. She tried to distract herself from the wretched misery she was feeling with the familiar sights of Central London from a double-decker bus, the engine rumbling and vibrating through the floor and the regular ding-ding of request stops…. had it really been two years since this had been part of her daily ritual? In some ways it felt like a dream, as though the last two years hadn't really happened, just a day dream one evening on her way back from work…

Although judging by the Doctor's reaction to her after her future self had appeared, she strongly suspected that dream was about to come to an abrupt and miserable end.

She was nervous as she walked from the bus stop back to the flat. Nervous because her mother wouldn't be there… ever again… and she didn't know how badly that was going to hurt yet. And nervous because she didn't know if the Doctor was going to keep his promise and meet her here. And nervous because even if he did, he was still so angry with her.

The nervousness had turned to full blown, gut wrenching panic as evening had come and gone with no Doctor appearing. He'd left her, he really, really, really had left her. No mum, no Mickey, no job… nobody and nothing to cling to… that was when she started screaming.

dwdwdwdwdwdw

Rose jolted awake, the scream still ripping through her. For a second she had no idea where she was, and then the familiar surroundings of her bedroom came into focus. She was at home, in her own bed and judging by the sunlight coming through the window it was late afternoon or early evening. As she tried to organise her jumbled thoughts, her bedroom door burst open and the Doctor and Jack spilled into the room, looking around wildly for a source of danger.

"Rose, what is it? What's wrong?" the Doctor demanded, panicked, his gaze finally settling on her after searching and not finding anything within the room to have caused her to scream.

"Nothing." She said hurriedly, drawing up her covers remembering she'd discarded her bloody tee-shirt before she'd got into bed.

"Why were you screaming?" Jack looked at her with wary concern.

"Nightmare." She replied shortly. "Sorry." She apologised. Although, she mused, it wasn't a nightmare in the traditional sense. It was a memory, a very bad memory of the very worst time in her life. Of course the Doctor had eventually returned, just yesterday evening, with a surprisingly alive Jack Harkness in tow, but it had been a long two weeks of believing that he'd abandoned her.

"How's the pain?" the Doctor asked, carefully stepping over a pile of clothes as he moved closer to the bed.

"Bit sore but not too bad." She stared at the pattern on her quilt, avoiding his gaze. Actually it was sore as hell, and the screaming probably hadn't helped, but the injections he'd given her earlier, before stitching her up had been excruciatingly painful, it felt as though he was injecting into the ragged edges of the wound itself. He'd apologised profusely and tried to calm her as she yelled profanities, Jack holding her down to stop her writhing and kicking… they'd said it was necessary but that didn't make it any less painful – she'd much rather put up with the burning sensation she was feeling now that go anywhere near that kind of pain again.

"I'll get you something to ease it." He promised, obviously not believing her response.

"No, no, no!" she rushed, alarmed, curling her knees up to her chest protectively. She tore her gaze from the quilt and looked up at his confused and alarmed expression pleadingly.

"I can't. Not that injection again." She begged, answering his unspoken question.

"Oh, Rose." He sighed, shaking his head. "That was just to numb the area for the stitches. I was going to get you some tablets to swallow."

"Oh, right." She sighed audibly in relief. "Yeah, please."

He nodded silently and slipped out of the room. Jack watched him leave then sat on the edge of Rose's bed taking her hand in his own. Rose snagged the quilt in a death grip; it had shifted down slightly as Jack put his weight on it. Seeing her alarmed expression he grabbed a tee-shirt from her 'clean' pile on the chair and passed it to her, keeping his back turned. She tugged it on, hissing as she used her left arm, stretching the red hot skin around her injury, but glad she was now decent.

"He's still so angry with me." Rose confided, her voice breaking slightly. Jack turned to face her.

"Any reason why he shouldn't be?" Jack asked gently. She looked up at him, startled. "Rose, what you did this morning was incredibly stupid." He told her, his voice still soft.

"Jack, he was going to shoot you!" She tried to explain. "I couldn't just watch!"

"I can't be killed." He reminded her. "And the Doctor can regenerate, but you, Rose, you're very breakable."

She'd forgotten about Jack's immortality. Although to be fair, she'd only found out about it last night, and that, for some reason she couldn't comprehend, that was the reason the Doctor had left him behind on the Game Station. But that hadn't been exactly what she'd meant anyway. She wasn't just referring to this morning…

In the past, if something had happened like… well like her getting shot while trying to protect her friends for example, sure, the Doctor would probably have yelled at her, but he'd also have praised her for her bravery, for thinking of others before herself… and he certainly wouldn't have let Jack be the one to carry her back.

But then he used to care about her.

The sound of Jack clearing his throat reminded her he was there and he was waiting for her to say something.

"I know, I just…." She shrugged, struggling to explain why what she did was right, even in the face of his inescapable logic. "I just couldn't not do something… I couldn't just watch."

Jack put his hand on her shoulder as he looked at her seriously. In fact she couldn't remember him ever looking so serious. "Rose, that's exactly what you have to do." He said firmly. "We followed the Master here from the end of time. He's got the TARDIS. Who knows what he's got planned."

Rose knew that of course, they'd explained it to her last night. The reason for the Doctor's prolonged absence, he'd gone to Cardiff to refuel the TARDIS and give himself some thinking space, meaning to return to the Powell Estate straight afterwards, and then Jack had heard the TARDIS materialise and run to the ship and the TARDIS had gone to the end of time trying to shake him off…. The Master had stolen the TARDIS with the Doctor managing to lock the TARDIS coordinates to its last space-time location before he left, and then Jack and the Doctor had followed him using Jack's vortex manipulator…

Less than 24 hours after their return he had men out, shooting at them, although the Doctor said he may have been there a while, months even… there was no telling where he was or even who he was…

"Next time…" Jack broke into her thoughts "… and yes, Rose, there's probably going to be a 'next time'… next time you run, you hide, you do whatever you need to do to get yourself out of danger." His look was stern and brooked no refusal.

Rose blushed under his scrutiny and nodded almost imperceptibly.

"Say it, Rose." He commanded.

"I will… I mean, I promise." She looked back down at her quilt to avoid his eyes, knowing that if it really came down to it, she'd never be able to keep that promise.

"Good girl!" He squeezed her hand in affection and approval.

The Doctor came in then with two pills and a glass of water; he dropped the pills in her hand and put the glass of water on her bedside table. Rose murmured her gratitude, avoiding his eyes, and then as she reached for the glass her gaze fell on her alarm clock and realisation dawned on her. Downing the pills and hurriedly gulping the water, she swung her legs out of the bed in panic, jostling Jack as she did so.

"Whoa! What's the hurry?" Jack put a hand on her shoulder to still her for a second.

"Gotta go to work!" She said. "I'm late!" She really wanted to change but there was no time. She still had her jeans on from this morning, there was blood on the waistband but her clean tee-shirt hid that, she wore a uniform at work so it wasn't like she'd be serving while she was covered in blood. She leapt to her feet, vertigo hitting her about a second after she was upright; the Doctor caught her as she reeled dizzily towards the floor.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor Who.

I may change the rating – genre/type as the story progresses. The current rating and genre reflects what I've written so far, but assuming I continue the way I've got it mapped, I'm going to have to change it.

Once again, I'd really love some reviews – you'd absolutely make my month

**Chapter 4**

"Rule number one…" he said, guiding her back to the bed, "You must not go to work within hours… literally just a few hours… of being shot in the chest…" okay so he was making it sound worse than it was but seriously, what was she thinking?

"Rule number two," he continued, "you do not, I repeat NOT, leave this house unless you are with me or Jack… preferably both of us." He added. He caught her chin between his thumb and finger and carefully turned her face towards him.

"Got that?" he demanded, then checked himself. He was so on edge just now, he didn't mean to keep snapping at her, he really didn't. "Promise me, Rose." He lowered his voice to a more gentle tone, catching her eyes with his, trying to show her his concern.

She nodded, the movement slightly hampered by his hand on her chin. "I promise." She whispered.

"Good." He took a deep breath, his face set, trying to suppress the images of her bleeding, the gut wrenching fear he'd felt when he'd seen the wound in her chest. It could have been so much worse but it was bad enough. He could still hear her screams as he injected the local anaesthetic and it filled him with irreversible guilt. This should never have happened. If he hadn't gone to Cardiff to refuel, if he had just done as he'd asked and stayed with her rather than running off – the Master would still be trapped at the end of the universe, not even knowing who he was and Rose would be safe. Well as safe as she could be in the circumstances…

dwdwdwdwdwdwdw

Rose had called her boss saying that she wouldn't be in work again, she'd phoned in sick the previous evening when the Doctor and Jack had turned up but had promised she'd be back in tonight. She played the sick card again, but she knew her boss wasn't buying it and had to endure an earful before she got off the phone. She really hoped she hadn't lost her job, with the situation with the Doctor as it was and with the TARDIS not letting her in, assuming he even got it back, she needed a regular source of income.

She joined them in the living room, a little shaken after her call. The doctor was tinkering with something on the coffee table, the sight reminding her of happier times, struck a bitter-sweet chord within her. Jack had her laptop open on his knees and was engrossed in whatever it was he was reading but he looked up as she came in.

"You okay? You don't look so good?"

She nodded. "Just got a right bollocking for not going into work!" She complained, wincing slightly as the Doctor frowned at her choice of language. "Sorry." She apologised quickly. "Is there anything I can do to help?" she hovered in the doorway, feeling a little bit out of place, even though this had been her home since she was born.

The Doctor and Jack both shook their heads. The Doctor looked up briefly. "You should get something to eat; you've not had anything since this morning."

Neither have you! She wanted to retort, but she held her tongue. At least he seemed to be speaking to her now; sort of… even so, the atmosphere between them was still thick and uncomfortable. She sighed.

"Right." She said, "Right, well I'll just…" she shrugged uncertainly and went into the kitchen, thinking she'd make herself a cup of tea, she wasn't particularly hungry.

The sight of Jack's whisky bottle made her pause for thought though…. Miles better than tea right? And Jack wouldn't mind. The Doctor probably would, probably react as if she'd destroyed the whole space-time continuum or something… again. She snorted to herself. But really, where was the harm? It wasn't like she was going to be driving or anything. And it wasn't like she had to tell him about it.

She glanced behind her guiltily, although she was three years over the legal drinking age, suddenly she felt like a teenager sneaking her parents booze while they were out, she stifled a giggle at how ridiculous that was. This was her bloody flat now her mum was gone, she could do whatever she wanted!

She was just gulping down the third, generous, neat tumbler-full, still wincing and gasping a little from the fiery burn in her throat, when the Doctor came into the kitchen.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** Doctor Who is not mine, I'm very sorry to say.

I'm running out of pre-written stuff, maybe just one more chapter. Really would love some reviews. Good or bad, really want to know what you think. Am I on the right track? (Is the rating still okay?)

**Chapter 5**

He looked at the glass in her hand and then looked at the open bottle next to her.

"What's that?" he demanded, staring pointedly at the glass, already knowing the answer but really not wanting to believe it.

"Urm… s'nothing" she mumbled, flushing guiltily as she put the empty glass down on the counter, pushing it out of sight, behind her, as though that could undo the damage.

"How much have you had, Rose?"

"Jus' the one." She slurred, her voice betraying her.

"_Don't_ lie to me."

She shrugged, her eyes downcast, the flush still on her cheeks.

"You little idiot!" he breathed. "Have you got any idea the effect that stuff will have on the pills I gave you earlier?" the volume of his voice was building in line with his anger, "and on an empty stomach!"

She shook her head forlornly, still looking at the floor. "I'm... I'm sorry." She stammered. He noticed her hands clutching tightly on the countertop behind her, the effects of the alcohol mixed with the analgesic probably making her feel dizzy and sick. He was torn, half of him wanting to just wrap her in his arms and hold her tight, tell her it would be okay… and the other half, the frightened and frustrated half, wanted to shake her and shout at her, wanted to make her see, make her understand how much danger she was truly in.

But he couldn't, he just couldn't tell her. It would break her if she knew the whole of the truth. He ground his teeth in frustration.

"Just get to bed." He bit out, eventually. "I'll find something to counteract the alcohol before it makes you sick."

"Doctor I'm…." she started but he hushed her with an abrupt wave of his hand and a hard glare.

"Don't even go there Rose, I'm not interested. You have no idea how angry I am with you right now. Just go to bed."

He spun away, heading back to the living room. He had patches in the TARDIS which extracted alcohol through the skin, but of course, he didn't have the TARDIS. Jack might have something in that enormous rucksack of his though.

Jack looked up from the laptop as the Doctor came in.

"I heard raised voices…" he commented. "Well… one raised voice." He corrected himself with a tight smile.

"She's smashed." The Doctor explained. "Drunk. Downed half your whisky by the look of it."

"Oh." Jack looked surprised, and then shrugged. "Can't blame her really, it's been a crap couple of weeks for her. Why were you yelling at her about it?"

The Doctor took a long breath in through his nose and rubbed his hands over his face.

"She's just…." His voice trailed off. He shrugged.

"No, seriously Doctor. Ever since we got back you've been down on her. What's up?"

The Doctor glanced at him, glanced away and then sighed…. "She's just…. It's just… _wrong_ Jack." He looked the ex-time agent in the eye. "She was… _is_ supposed to be on the parallel universe with her mum and her dad and Mickey."

"What do you mean 'supposed to be'?"

"She… when she stayed… when her future self stopped her being caught by Pete, she changed time –no, not just time – she changed the whole bloody universe in a way that it was never supposed to be changed. I knew as soon as the void closed. She was supposed to go with them; her time in this universe is done…. ."

"And you were okay with that?" Jack demanded, outraged.

"No." the Doctor said in a low voice, shaking his head vehemently. "No, I was never okay with that. But it was right. It felt right."

"How did you know?"

"The timelines." The Doctor murmured. "_Her_ timelines to be exact. The pull's been getting stronger and stronger over the last few months, it was inevitable, it was a _fact_." He looked moodily at the ground. "But she changed it… and now, well…" he shook his head and stopped talking.

"So what do you see in her timelines now, Doctor?" Jack asked urgently.

The Doctor shook his head, frowning as he tried to hold back the pain which rose in him whenever he thought about this. It haunted his waking hours as well as his sleeping ones. He knew he'd remember that day forever.

When her hands slipped after she'd so bravely worked her way over to the lever to bring the system back online and she'd fallen towards the void. At first he'd wondered why there were dual edges to her scream until he realised he was screaming too, desperately reaching out to her even though he knew it was useless. Then the impossible happened.

A future version of Rose had appeared and caught her. How could that ever happen? How could she even have a future if she'd been sucked into the void? Then when the parallel version of Pete Tyler appeared, arms open to catch her, it all fell into place. She'd gone into the parallel universe with Pete, somehow figured out a way to come back and stopped herself from being caught by Pete. Stopped herself from leaving this universe and creating a paradox to boot. Although his highly tuned Time Lord brain figured that a relatively small paradox during such a climactic time would mostly go unnoticed by the universe as it healed.

And it meant that Rose Tyler would stay here. With him.

The joyful shout died on his lips when he saw her. Truly saw her. Her future self had no real space-time substance. Time was moving through her, not around her, but that was as it should be. She would cease to exist any second, the future was being rewritten. What really shocked him was the Rose of the present. Before, the timelines around her had always been so strong. Merging and converging, her presence in the universe so right, so undeniable, so solid… and now there was nothing. The timelines so strong just a few minutes ago had been completely snuffed out. Now, looking at her was like looking into a dead-space, as far as the universe was concerned she didn't exist… it hurt to look at her and his gut was telling him to run, get as far away from this sense of wrongness as possible… but this was Rose. Rose Marion Tyler, his best friend. The woman he cared for more than anything in all the universes. The woman he'd died for, the woman who would've died for him, and she nearly did.

And now she was vulnerable. So vulnerable, with no place in this universe, no purpose and therefore no real chance of surviving. The universe had many ways of sterilising wounds, and it would see Rose as an infection…

What had she done?

Joy had been suffocated by fear but anger was a close runner up. After all she _knew_! She knew the rules, she totally knew. Then, as he ran towards the pair he caught the flicker of guilt on the older Rose's face just before she vanished. Oh yeah, she knew…

Fear and anger were jostling for first place as he skidded to a halt. With effort, he reigned the fear in, not wanting her to know just exactly how much danger she was in now, how much the universe did not want her, how likely she was to die at any time, from even the most unlikely cause, even though he'd do everything in his power to protect her. Forever, if it came to it. Never leaving her side, if that's what it took.

As he swallowed his fear to hide it from her, anger blazed through him and he saw her flinch, heard her whimper, and felt her fear. He was a Time Lord, last of his kind and it was up to him to enforce the laws and discipline of his people. To punish those that abused the gift of time travel… his responsibility… but this was still Rose and whatever she'd done, she had to have a good reason. The universe in danger or even her own life in danger…. He tensed up, fighting to hold his anger in, it worked but barely. He had to find out what had just happened and why…

There was nothing to throw in the white room, or kick or knock over or smash. He clenched his fists at his sides instead as he paced. She'd crossed dimensions to alter her own history because she was _bored_?! Not because the universe was in danger, not even because she was in danger – either of those he could've forgiven... but she did it because she didn't like her life on the parallel Earth! How irresponsible! How _selfish_! How reckless! How so unlike the Rose Tyler he knew. Well thought he knew… but that same girl was here. Just a few years younger than the version that had risked everything because she was what…? _Discontented_?

For the first time ever he was suddenly glad that the Time Lord race didn't exist anymore. Because of what they might do to her. Right now he was the judge, jury and executioner. It was his choice to make, and he chose….


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any part of Doctor Who… although… there are some parts I wouldn't mind getting hold of ;)

Reviews would be fantastic. Please don't make me beg *pouts* some allusions to violence in the chapter after this – please let me know if the ratings are still okay.

**Chapter 6**

"Nothing." He took a deep breath to steady himself. "Nothing, Jack. Her timelines have gone. There's nothing, nothing…. She's like you Jack." He said in a rush. "She isn't supposed to be here. That's why the TARDIS wouldn't let her in, even she could feel how wrong it was, wanted rid of her…." His frown deepened and he turned his face sharply, trying to hide the agony in his expression.

"So that's what you're going to do then Doctor?" Jack demanded, a hard edge to his voice. "You're going to abandon her, like you abandoned me on Satellite Five?"

"No." The Doctor said, low and quiet, more to himself than to Jack. "No. Not her."

" I see."Jack's face flickered briefly with pain and resentment but the Doctor understood why. "So what _are _you going to do, Doctor?"

The Doctor sighed, long and hard, shaking his head slightly. "The trouble is, Jack. Before all this, Rose had a purpose, a place in the universe... it was supposed to end here and she was supposed to go there, with her family. Up until then the universe was sort of keeping her safe… weeellll , as safe as possible in the circumstances… but now she's changed that. Anything could happen; she doesn't have a place here anymore and…." He'd been about to admit how scared he was. How much he feared that something might happen to Rose, that she might die, because now the odds were against her and he was so terrified of losing her… but he stopped himself. "… And so now, I'm going to have make sure that she stays safe and sound. Whatever it takes…"

"So why are you so angry with her?"

"I'm not angry with _her _Jack." The Doctor said sharply. "I'm angry with _me_!" Every gut instinct in me is screaming at me to find a way to take her back to the other universe, or any universe, just to get her out of this one… but I can't…. I won't…!

…even though I should. "

"Have you told her?"

The Doctor looked at him aghast. "No, of course not! She's vulnerable, so vulnerable… this universe doesn't want her, has no place for her… Could you tell her that?" he demanded.

"No." Jack shook his head. "No you're right, of course she can't know."

dwdwdwdwdwdwdw

Rose pushed herself away from the kitchen counter, her legs slightly unsteady beneath her, she half lurched, half stumbled to the kitchen door.

She needed to apologise. She needed to see the Doctor look at her with something other than anger and contempt in his expression. She had to let him know she was trying, but it was so hard for her, with her mum gone and Mickey gone and him so angry at her all the time, plus the two weeks of hell she'd just been through… and she'd probably just lost her job.

She used the hallway wall to steady herself as she walked towards the living room. The sound of their voices made her hesitate. They were talking about her.

"No, seriously Doctor. Ever since we got back you've been down on her. What's up?" Jack's voice. She felt a tiny bubble of gratitude that at least he was on her side.

There was silence for a moment and then the Doctor spoke. "She's just…. It's just… _wrong_ Jack. She was, _is_ Supposed to be on the parallel universe with her mum and her dad and Mickey."

"What do you mean 'supposed to be'?"

"She… when she stayed… when her future self stopped her being caught by Pete, she changed time –no, not just time – she changed the whole bloody universe in a way that it was never supposed to be changed. I knew as soon as the void closed. She was supposed to go with them; her time in this universe is done…. ." it was hard to make out what the Doctor was saying, he was speaking so quietly.

"And you were okay with that?" She could hear the outrage in Jack's voice.

She concentrated as hard as she could but she couldn't hear the Doctor's response to that, just a short laugh. What had he said?

"How did you know?" Jack again. She had no trouble hearing his booming American tones.

Rose heard something about 'Timelines' but it was murmured. Then, "…Getting stronger and stronger over the last few months, it was inevitable, it was a _fact_. But she changed it… and now, well…"

"So what do you see in her timelines now, Doctor?" Jack asked, urgency colouring his voice.

There was silence for a few moments then "Nothing… Nothing, Jack. Her timelines have gone. There's nothing, nothing…. She's like you Jack. She isn't supposed to be here. That's why the TARDIS wouldn't let her in, even she could feel how wrong it was, wanted rid of her…."

Rose's face screwed up with pain as she heard the truth of it. The Doctor had masked it before when the TARDIS had thrown her out at Canary Wharf.

"So that's what you're going to do then Doctor?" Jack demanded, a hard edge to his voice. "You're going to abandon her, like you abandoned me on Satellite Five?"

Again the Doctor's voice was too low for her to make out and her heart was hammering so loudly that all she could hear was the blood rushing through her veins.

"I see." Jack's voice sounded sad and suddenly she knew. He was going to abandon her. Why he hadn't done it already she didn't know but that was his end game, it was everything she'd feared and yet everything she expected.

Rose gasped, overwhelmed with grief and despair. She clapped both hands to her mouth in a vain attempt to stifle the harsh, sobs forcing their way up through her hitching chest. Stumbling backwards, Rose ran to the front door, fumbled it open and ran outside, feeling herself tearing apart from the inside out.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** None of this belongs to me

Okay – some allusions to violence her and a smidge of gore. Please let me know if the rating's inappropriate.

**Chapter 7**

Naturally Jack had some patches with him to neutralise the effects of alcohol. Lifestyle like his it was kind of essential. The Doctor unwrapped one and took it to Rose's room. "Rose?" he called gently, knocking on the door. There was no answer, she must be asleep, he assumed. He opened the door, peering into the darkness. He needed to apologise to her, let her know that even though it was an insanely stupid thing to do, he understood why she'd felt the need to make everything numb for a little while.

"Rose?" he called again. "I've got something here that'll help you." He heard no signs of stirring; she must really be out of it. He walked over to the bed, reaching out to gently shake her awake. His hand froze mid air. She wasn't there. His eyes darted around the room in panic. Where was she?

Maybe the bathroom. He strode quickly to the large, family bathroom off the main hallway. No need to check in there, the door was open, the light was off and the room was empty.

"Jack." He called, the urgency clear in his voice.

"What?" Jack was there in an instant.

"I can't find Rose." And then he noticed, the front door slightly ajar. "Nonononono!" thrusting the patch into his pocket, he ran towards the door, Jack hot on his heels. A quick scan of the balcony showed no sign of her. He leaned precariously over the side to search among the lower balconies, nothing. The street below, nothing. His hearts clenched in his chest. Where had she gone? Had something happened to her? Was she okay? How would they find her?

"Did she have her phone on her?" Jack's voice broke through the Doctor's panic.

Thick! Thick! He was so thick! Her phone! Of course! He dashed back to the living room, grabbing the portable handset and punching the numbers to her mobile in, his desperation causing him to make mistakes, he had to start over three times. He berated himself again when he saw her name appear in the readout. Of course her mum would've had her on speed dial. Why was he being such a blithering idiot?

"Mum?" Rose's confused voice came through the earpiece.

"Rose!" the Doctor cried in relief. "It's me. It's the Doctor, it's not…" he broke off, no time for explanations…. And how could it be her bloody mother anyway? "Rose, where are you?"

There was silence at the other end of the phone, the Doctor felt his heart rate increase, his panic rising again. "Rose?"

"Yeah, 'm here." She said, her tone guarded.

"Rose, where are you?" he repeated "Why did you leave the flat?"

"Heard you talking." She answered quietly.

"What did you hear Rose?" the Doctor asked urgently, remembering the conversation he and Jack had had after he'd yelled at her. He swallowed, anxiously.

"Heard you say you're gonna leave me behind, like you did Jack." She accused, her voice was hard but the Doctor still heard the sob behind it.

"I didn't say that Rose!" he said desperately, "I said I wouldn't do that! I promise you! I won't do that! Please, tell me where you are?"

"Rose? ROSE!" he yelled, fear gripping him. There was silence at the other end of the phone. "Rose, answer me!" the silence was punctured by an ear splitting scream, the Doctor dropped the phone, he'd heard that in stereo, both through the earpiece and through the open front door. He ran, his feet pounding on the concrete stairs, leaping two or three at a time in his haste to get to street level.

"Doctor!" Jack shouted urgently from the other side of the courtyard below, his desperation clear in his voice.

The Doctor sprinted along the concrete towards the voice, "Jack! Is she there?"

As he skidded to a halt, his question was answered for him. In the shadowy recess of a loading bay door there was a large pool of blood, shining black in the orange glow of the streetlights. On the edge of the pool, splattered with the sticky gore, was Rose's mobile phone.

The Doctor froze, his amazing, brilliant, multitasking Time Lord brain completely shutting down for what might have been a moment, a few minutes or even several years as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing.

There was no body but there was so much blood… too much.

"She was taken." Jack said, stating the obvious, nobody who'd lost that much blood could get anywhere under their own steam.

"Here, look." He pointed to the still wet smears on the pavement, evidence that she'd been dragged. The smears stopped at the edge of the road so she'd obviously been loaded into a car or a van.

This had to be the Master's work, it was too much of a coincidence.

"What do we do, Doctor?"

"We take this city apart, brick by brick until we find her!"

"Yeah, I'm with you on that one, but where do we start?"

"I don't…." The Doctor dropped to his knees, his hands going to his face, it was taking all of his effort to force down the scream rising within him. There was so much blood, and with a future already so very fragile… this could be it. This. Could. Be. It…. And the last thing he did was yell at her. He vowed that if they – no, when they – managed to recover her, alive and well, he'd never shout at her again. She could stop time, destroy universes… drink as much of Jack's bloody JD as she wanted. He'd never, ever be angry with her again…

"Doc." Jack's urgent, slightly fearful voice interrupted his thoughts. He felt a tentative hand on his shoulder. "No time to break down now Doctor. We've got to find Rose."

He took a deep breath, removing his hands from his face as he nodded. That was when Rose's mobile phone went off. Both men looked at it for a moment, "Unknown" flashing on the display, then both reached for it at the same time. The Doctor snagged it first, wiping the worst of the blood off the handset onto his trousers as he lifted it to his ear.

"Yes?" he answered.

"Doctor." The Master's voice crooned his name.

"Master." He acknowledged shortly

"I like it when you use my name…."

The Doctor wasn't getting drawn into this. "Where's Rose?"

His anxiety elicited a laugh that was almost a giggle from the other end of the receiver.

"What have you done with her?" he demanded, his voice harsh, desperate.

"Oh, now, now Doctor." The Master admonished. "She's fine. Well, probably will be. Although, might be a good idea to let me know her blood type, I think the guy who went to collect her may have been a bit… overenthusiastic…"

The Doctor hissed through his teeth. "Take her to the TARDIS!" He pleaded.

"Well, she's not actually here yet, he's only just picked her up." The Master stated, half exasperated, half mocking.

"When she gets there. Please Master." He begged. "Take her to the sick bay. The TARDIS has her blood in storage."

"Well, I would. Of course I would but the TARDIS is being rather… uncooperative right now." The Master drawled in his sing-song voice.

"A positive!" the Doctor spat out, desperately. "She's A Positive. Just help her. Please. She's nothing to you. She can't hurt you just keep her safe. I'm begging you."

"Well, well, the Doctor begging. Hmmm. I like the sound of that!" The Doctor could hear the smug smile in his voice.

"I'll keep her alive for now. She's no good to me dead after all."

The Doctor sighed in relief. Scrunching his eyes closed for a second. "What do you want, Master?"

"Hmmm. Well… there are so many choices!" the Master sang. "How about this planet? Yeah? No! Boring! How about…." He paused for dramatic effect. "The Universe!" he laughed manically. The victory already won in his head, then he silenced suddenly.

"Where is it Doctor? Where's Gallifrey?"

"Gone." The Doctor said sadly, taking a deep breath.

"How can Gallifrey be gone?"

"It burnt."

"And the Time Lords?"

"Dead… and the Daleks… more or less…."


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Doctor Who.

Note from me: Thank you to everyone who's read this so far. After this chapter the story's just in my head, I've not written any part of it yet really, just sketched a few things out. I know where it's going but I'm not committed to an exact journey yet. Any thoughts, reviews, requests would really help.

Also, I'm deliberately not following the series too closely, after all we've all seen it, right? And I know I couldn't do it justice in print so I'm just using bits and pieces where it fits or where it's necessary for the story to get where I need it to go, which is why the Master isn't PM and why the Toclafane aren't in it. Loved those episodes but didn't want to ruin them with my clumsy writing. Hope that's okay.

**Chapter 8**

Rose awoke with the most almighty, clouting hangover she'd ever had. Her first thoughts were 'What was I drinking last night?' followed by 'What did I do?' followed by 'Hang on. Wasn't drinking…? Was I drinking…?' Oh, yeah. She'd had some of Jack's JD, but blimey! Not that much! And where the hell was she anyway?

She squinted her eyes against the harsh, bright light from above as she tried to make out the shapes around her. She was on a settee, it smelt richly of new leather and it was deliciously cool against her cheek. There was a funny taste in her mouth and her body felt hot and heavy like she was coming down with the flu.

She looked around the room, the shapes beginning to take on definition as she became more conscious.

"Well, well, well!" the voice from the shadows startled her. "What do we have here? None other than Rose Tyler! I've been _itching_ to get my hands on you!"

From his voice and expression Rose could tell three things. One, that he was gleeful. Two, that he was insane. And three, that he was dangerous. Very dangerous.

"Wh… who are you?" she stammered.

"Oh! How disappointing!" the man tipped his head to one side, his eyes smiling, his mouth pouting. "Go on! Guess!"

"The Master?" Rose ventured, already knowing it was true. Something about him reminded her of the Doctor, something about the way he looked at things.

"Spot on! Have a gold star!" he chimed.

"How did I get here?" Rose asked.

"Friend of mine picked you up. Of course, he wouldn't have needed to pick you up if he hadn't knocked you down!" the Master clapped his hands as he laughed at his own joke.

Rose remembered the shape in the shadows. Then a sudden splitting pain in her head. She winced, hissing through her teeth at the memory, her hand rising unbidden to touch the top of her head. Ow! It stung as she touched it.

"Yes… sorry about that." The Master didn't look sorry. He smiled at her as he shrugged. "Had to be done – couldn't have you shouting out and giving the game away after my man had gone to so much trouble to stage your 'near death' for the Doctor's benefit of course."

Rose had no idea what he was talking about but the mention of the Doctor's name had her trying to sit up. "The Doctor! Where is he?" she demanded. Nausea rolled through her like a breaking wave at high tide and she quickly slumped back down.

"Hmmm…. Well…. Probably on his way here." The Master mused. "Especially since I knew that scoundrel Jack Harkness would be able to trace the call I made to your mobile phone with his Torchwood team, and especially since I kept the Doctor on the phone more than long enough for him to trace the call – well, I sort of bounced it around a little bit, it won't lead him directly here because I needed time but he's on his way."

"You know he's coming and you're still here?" Rose asked incredulously. "Are you mad? Have you _met_ the Doctor?"

"Oh, tish and pish! The Master chided, still grinning. He pursed his lips. "He's not as brilliant as you think he is! He's good, but… yeah, I'm better! Yes, he's coming here and yes, he suspects a trap and yet he still can't help himself… aawww!" He frowned in mock pity. "He thinks he can make me better you see. The Doctor, _always_ making people better. Why can't I be more like him? They all ask… but did anybody ever think to ask, WHY CAN'T HE BE MORE LIKE ME?" The amused calm had turned to rage, quick as a flash, then back to calm again as the Master smiled at her serenely.

Okay, this guy was Bonkers with a capital 'B'. Rose tried, through her pounding headache, to assess the situation. She was in a living-room, maybe or perhaps a hotel suite… yeah. That felt more right. The Doctor, may or may not be on his way… although, if Jack had anything to say about it then he definitely was. The sky outside the large, picture windows was black so it was still night-time. She wasn't tied up, or restrained in anyway, although the headache, the nausea and the general feeling of being completely drained of all energy was restraint enough right now. And she'd been captured by the Master. For what? She had nothing to offer and from the Doctor's recent distance, she wasn't sure she was really a bargaining chip… then something else occurred to her.

"But if you need the Doctor for something, why did your men try to kill him?"

"That was a mistake." The Master spat. "One that they won't be able to make again."

Rose went cold. So he'd killed them.

"They were supposed to bring you to me, that's all."

"Me? Why me?"

"Well, not likely the Doctor would cooperate without something to entice him. That annoying American can't die – so not really an enticement… 'Do what I want or I'll kill the American… oh no I can't …' That's not really going to work is it?"

So the Master knew that Jack couldn't die… well, couldn't stay dead. He must've died on that planet in the far future where they'd first run into the Master.

"So how long have you been back here, on Earth?" Rose asked him.

"About a month. The Doctor locked the coordinates of the TARDIS so that I couldn't travel anywhere but here. Of course, I'm obviously grateful that he showed me how to use the watch once he recognised it. Trusting fool that he is, he shouldn't have said anything… I just wish that I'd not been right next to him when I opened it."

The watch? What watch? What was he talking about? The explanation for the Doctor's absence after Canary Wharf had been sketchy at best. Rose knew they'd been to the end of the Universe, or the end of time… or both. Jack had somehow attached himself to the outside of the TARDIS, they'd run into a group of humans trying to survive as the Universe died around them, they'd run into the Master he'd taken the TARDIS and the Doctor had done something to bring it back to the present, then they'd used the vortex manipulator to bring them back. Two weeks later.

She'd spent the best part of the first week in so much distress at her abandonment that she'd been unable to leave the flat, then after several phone calls she'd managed to get an evening job waiting tables at a restaurant in the high street. The pay was rubbish and her boss was awful but with the rent due on the flat and with the cupboards getting scarily empty of food she had to put practicality ahead of her emotional state.

Of course, she'd probably lost that job now having thrown 2 sick days in her first week…

"So, if you've been here a month, why didn't you try to get me before this?"

It was the Master's turn to look confused. "I didn't know there was a 'you' to get until this morning, when I saw you on the CCTV footage in the shopping centre. The records state that you died at Canary Wharf."

A shock, like an electric jolt passed through Rose. What did that mean? The Doctor wouldn't have registered her as dead – at least, not without talking to her about it first. Unless he does that in the future… but if he does, what the hell does that mean? She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to try and swallow the rising panic.

"What d'you need him to cooperate with and why does that involve me?" she asked, trying to assemble her jumbled thoughts.

"I need to get into the TARDIS." The Master told her. "I got in before. Then I brought it here, and now, she won't let me back in."

"Join the club, mate!" Rose whispered, half sniggering. "She won't let me in either! Not sure I can help you there mister."

"Master!" he corrected darkly with a scowl. "And no, you can't help me, you? A pathetic human! I need the Doctor to tell the TARDIS to obey my commands. He locked it as I was taking off. You're here to make sure he does just that."

"He's not gonna do it." Rose shook her head slightly. "You're _so_ wasting your time."

"Oh he'll do it." The Master stated confidently. "You see, I know him so very well. I really needed to focus the Doctor's attention. So right now, he's on his way here thinking you're dead or almost dead… he'll be oh so relieved when he sees that you're okay, that all the blood he saw wasn't actually yours, and then, once that's sunk in, I'll tell him about this…" He held up an empty syringe.

"What's that?" she asked, her voice thick with fear.

"Oh that?" He laughed. "That's poison! Don't you see? The Doctor thinks that you're dead, almost dead and then gloriously not dead and then… ooops! No, actually you're really, properly going to be dead… that's got to unhinge him right? I'm right aren't I?" He grinned widely, showing all of his teeth.

"You've poisoned me?"

"That's right! I'll trade the antidote for the TARDIS – he cannot refuse! …but guess what?" He knelt beside her and made a point of cupping his hand around her ear to whisper conspiratorially, "There is no antidote!" eyes shining with mirth he leant back to look at her horrified face. "Shhh!" he put a finger to his lips. "Don't tell! Anyway, I think you should sleep now." And with that he put his fingers to her temples and everything went black.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor Who

Thank you for reading and reviewing. It means a lot! I really hope you're enjoying this. I'm loving writing it.

**Chapter 9:**

"Doctor! I know where he is!"

Jack was gesturing frantically for the Doctor to move.

"Run, Doctor." The Master was almost shouting with glee. "RUN!"

And so they ran.

"Torchwood have locked onto his location" Jack shouted as they sprinted out of the housing estate, towards Central London. "We need to get to Blackfriars."

The busses and tubes were still running but it was late and the traffic was light enough to make a taxi the quickest way to get through the city so they jumped into a Hackney Carriage and they were on their way.

The Doctor strongly doubted that it was going to be as easy as this seemed on the face of it. The Master was a genius after all; he wasn't going to let them find him without a bit of a run-around first. And sure enough, the building at the location given by Torchwood was abandoned and boarded up.

"It's empty." Jack confirmed after a thorough sweep, "Apart from this." He handed the Doctor a wrapped package about the size of a shoe box. The wrapping was black with a pink rose pattern, all done up with a pink ribbon and bow.

"Careful, it could be an explosive." Jack warned as the Doctor examined the package.

"Yeah, it could." The Doctor acknowledged, with a nod. "but, it probably isn't. The Master knew where to find us apparently, he's had plenty of opportunities to blow me up so far… he needs me for something." He tore the wrapping off in one go.

It was in fact a shoe box, and nestled inside, among dried rose petals was a mobile phone.

"He used this to direct the call… well… there might be dozens of them, all over London."

"So he's sent us on a wild goose chase!" Jack huffed in exasperation.

"No." The Doctor pulled his ear thoughtfully. "I don't think so. I'm sure this will all lead to him, he's just buying himself some time."

"Time to do what?"

"That's what we're going to find out." The Doctor tossed the phone to Jack. "Get Torchwood to trace the last call made to this."

After a few minutes, Jack handed the phone back to the Doctor. "It's dialling."

"Doctor." The Master crooned "Did you get lost? I expected to hear from you before this… you're not as good as I thought you were."

"Just tell me. Is Rose okay?" The Doctor asked desperately, ignoring the Master's taunting.

"She's fine. Just sleeping."

"If she's fine then let me talk to her."

"But she's _sleeping_ Doctor, you wouldn't want to disturb her would you?"

"I demand that you let me talk to her!" He shouted, his patience in tatters.

"You're in no position to make demands, Doctor!" the Master laughed. "But, if you insist…"

There was silence at the other end of the phone for a second and then a muffled conversation.

"Doctor?" Rose's voice was a little hoarse, but strong.

"Rose!" He breathed, relief flooding through him. "Rose, are you okay? Did he fix your head injury, did he replace the blood you'd lost?"

"What? Blood? I dunno what you're…. oh, yeah he said that was a set up. Not my blood. Look, Doctor he's…"

She was cut off abruptly and there was a loud tut-tutting on the other end of the line. "Now, now, young Rose, we don't want to spoil the surprise do we?"

"Rose!" the Doctor called, desperately.

"Doctor, she's fine – the blood bath was a set up to get your attention, like she said, it wasn't hers. Now… have Torchwood had enough time to trace this one yet?"

The Doctor looked at Jack, he was nodding.

"Don't forget to run, Doctor! Run!"

dwdwdwdwdwdwdw

He'd shaken her awake roughly, her head was still pounding, and it was worse if anything. Her body felt stiff and cold.

"It's for you-hoo!" the Master chimed, brandishing the phone. "It's the Doctor – just let him know that you're not dead." He held the phone to her ear.

Her heart pounded. Was it really him? "Doctor?"

A wave of raw emotion crashed over her as he answered. "Rose!"

And then he started talking about blood which flummoxed her completely for a moment. She hadn't had time to tell him about the poison, but even that right now couldn't dull the relief she felt. He was coming, he was really coming!

Did she ever doubt that?

Yeah, she did, she really did, maybe just a tiny bit but it had still been there. In the past it wouldn't even have been a question… well apart from that time in France when he'd left her, oh and when she'd saved her dad from that car and they'd had that blazing row and then he'd left her, ah, and yeah, when he'd left her at Canary Wharf and then taken two weeks to return…

She tried to fight it down but she couldn't stop the ugly question which raised itself in her head, demanding to be heard.

Had she ever been right to put so much trust and faith in this man? Had she been blinded, so dazzled by him that she'd missed the obvious?

She felt sick and she suspected that it wasn't just because of the poison.

Dwdwdwdwdw

"Doctor, we could be doing this for days! There's no telling how many of these things there are!" Jack bit out impatiently as they found another shoe box with yet another mobile phone nestled inside. This was their eighth now. Eight times being taunted by the Master and he hadn't let them talk to Rose again.

"So what are you saying?" The Doctor demanded as they both sprinted for the bus.

"There must be another way!"

"Jack, have you got a plan? Because if you have, I'm all ears!" they boarded the bus, the Doctor swinging down into an empty seat, leaving Jack standing in the aisle.

"Let me get my team out here?" Jack pleaded, "They can help us Doctor!"

"You do what you want Jack, but right now this is the only way I have of finding Rose and I'm not stopping while you and _Torchwood_" he spat the word out "find a way of making it worse!"

"It's not like that Doctor, I told you, it's changed. We changed it."

"Try telling that to all the people that the Cybermen killed!" The Doctor snapped, harshly. A lady in the seat in front of him got up to get off and Jack swung down into the empty space.

"I'm sorry, Jack." The Doctor leaned his elbows on the back of the seat in front of him and put his head in his hands. "It's just…"

"I know, Doc." Jack sighed. "But we'll find her…" he looked around for a moment as though looking for the right words.

"I can't believe that you left her at Canary Wharf after all that had happened, and considering what you knew about her timelines disappearing..." He tried to keep the accusation out of his voice as he said it, but it had been plaguing him since he found out.

"I had to move the TARDIS." The Doctor said, shortly. "But, anyway. That was never the plan. You know me better than that, Jack." He raised his head from his hands. "I was going to refuel, drop the TARDIS at her mum's and then be back at Canary Wharf for just after I'd left. I was going to follow her home, make sure she was okay."

"Just follow her?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, crossing my own time-stream just to keep her company for a short trip across London…? That's got to make her suspicious, right? I didn't want to worry her."

"I'm not sure it would've done…"

"I dunno…" The Doctor sighed. "I just dunno, I literally don't know how to be around her at the moment. I just don't want her to know how much she's changed things, how much danger she's…" he broke off to rub his face vigorously with his palms. "…but then, she said she overheard us talking. She might know already… I really didn't want her to find out like that. I didn't want her to find out at all."

"Me neither." Jack put a sympathetic hand on the Doctor's shoulder, then looked round. "Is this our stop?"

The bus had stopped amidst stationary traffic, people were crowding towards the front to get a better look at what was going on and then police sirens sounded from behind them. They both groaned.

"Gotta be an accident or something." Jack said. "I don't believe this!" They were both tired from the stress and the constant moving, criss-crossing London, never knowing when it was going to end.

"Come on." Jack said, getting up. "I've got an idea."

He left the Doctor standing on the pavement by the, now very long, tailback. Horns blared and angry shouts were heard as tempers frayed in the hot, London sun.

When he returned he was wheeling two Boris bikes towards the Doctor.

"You have got to be kidding me?"

"Fastest way to get around London."

"Blimey! Right…" He took a deep breath as he swung his leg over the saddle. "Allons-y!"

Jack laughed, they both did but only briefly, their laughter dying as the contemplated the task still ahead of them.

By the time they reached the hotel it was late evening.

"Erm…" The Doctor approached the reception desk. "Hi, yeah, I'm the Doctor and this is Jack. I think we're expected?"

"Suite 405." The receptionist said with a smile, handing the Doctor a key.

They looked at each other for a moment. They had no idea what the Master had waiting for them, if he was even here with Rose or if this was just another decoy.

The door opened to a luxurious suite. There was a long, dark settee in the middle of the room and across one of the arms, just visible from this angle, was a tangle of blonde hair.

"Rose!" They both said, together as they swept into the room.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor Who

**Chapter 10**

As morning drifted into afternoon and afternoon merged into early evening, Rose's condition became progressively worse. It was as though the poison surging through her blood and invading all her tissues was marching in tune with the sun's progression as it tracked across the sky.

There was nothing left inside her to vomit, but her stomach still heaved dryly as the first stars appeared in the heavens. Albeit they were faint in the blue-black of the summer sky, the sun barely dipping below the horizon gave the nightscape a glow which only the brightest celestial objects could pervade.

The pounding in her head increased to the point where she couldn't open her eyes anymore.

A sad thought passed through her mind, barely making a blip on her consciousness, the overwhelming pain taking up ninety nine percent of her awareness.

She would never see stars again.

She'd already resigned to the fact that she wouldn't see the Doctor again; if he was even still coming he'd arrive too late. Maybe he'd take her body back to Canary Wharf. Back to the day when everything changed, to be 'found' amongst the thousands of other bodies, the uncountable dead...

That would explain why the Master thought that she'd died there – and it would save the Doctor the trouble of going through the process of registering her death, coroner's report, post-mortem, explaining the poison which was probably of alien origin... she could understand that. He'd want to distance himself from the whole process and the pain and guilt that went with it.

But looking at the stars had given her comfort, had reminded what a fantastic life it had been.

Travelling with the Doctor through time and space.

As it should be.

The stuff of legends…

But now, even though the light in the room was dim, any optical stimulus sent a sharp, searing agony right through her skull and she couldn't look at the stars outside anymore. The pain was too much… too much.

Her thoughts became more jumbled, less coherent as the blackness crept towards her. The cold, dark of oblivion reaching out to claim her, its arms enveloping her as the Doctor's once had and whispering one word as she slipped into the black.

"Rose."

**dwdwdwdwdwdwdw**

Jack leapt forwards to restrain the Master as the Doctor crashed to his knees in front of Rose's limp, pale form.

She was alive, but barely. Her heart failing, her breaths shallow and irregular, her skin cold and waxy.

"Rose." He whispered, gathering her in his arms as his joy at seeing her faded to despair and then hardened into resolve.

"What have you done to her?"

The Master was standing passively by the window, his arms restrained by Jack, but there was no need. He wasn't resisting, his weapons were never about physical strength, he had plenty of other ways to fight and win.

"A little concoction of my own making. I have the antidote but you have to do something for me first. Give me the TARDIS, Doctor."

"Never!"

"Oh, never's quite a long time, Doctor. And trust me, you don't have that long. Look at her."

The Doctor looked down at Rose's pale, lifeless face, unconsciously crushing her body to his a little tighter as he held her. He had no choice.

He nodded.

The TARDIS was in the cramped car park at the rear of the building, nestled between the foul smelling bins and a nondescript white van. Upon seeing it the Doctor begun to sprint, solutions forming in his mind as he ran but as he opened the door to his ship and took a step over the threshold a blast caught him, throwing him into the air so that he landed hard on his back on the dusty tarmac. More worried about his companion than anything else, the doctor checked her over. There didn't seem to be any new injuries but her heartbeat was barely perceptible now. He was losing her.

The Master had been released by Jack as run to his friend's aid. He was leaping up and down joyfully. "Oh that was FUNNY!"

"There's no point anyway, Doctor. Even if you could get her into the TARDIS it would take too long to analyse the poison and synthesise an antidote. Why do you think I had you running all over London all day?"

"Then give me the antidote!" The Doctor roared.

"Not until you give me what I want… oh no you DON'T!" this directed at Jack who was moving to restrain him again." The Master took out his screwdriver and pointed it at Jack's chest. It emitted a high pitched screech and a beam which blasted Jack off his feet.

"Laser screwdriver!" He declared, proudly. "Who'd have sonic? And the good thing is, he's not dead for long, I get to kill him again!"

"I'll do it, I'll do it!" The Doctor shouted, desperate, pleading. "Just give me the antidote! Please!" His face was screwed up in anguish and tears had started to form in his eyes.

At some point during the kerfuffle, Rose had stopped breathing.

Then three things happened at once.

The Master joyfully turned to rush to the TARDIS, Jack took a loud, gasping breath and a gunshot rang out as Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones rushed into the car park. Jack took the opportunity to leap on the Master's back, divesting him of the screwdriver and pinning his arms. There was blood pulsing from the Master's shoulder where the bullet had struck him, but that didn't seem to be slowing his attempts to escape.

"Search him!" he commanded his team. "He's got the antidote on him somewhere."

But with the strength of a cornered, injured and in this instance, cowardly Time Lord, the Master broke free from Jack's grip, wresting the vortex manipulator from his wrist, he took a giant leap away from his captors and vanished.

Jack looked at the Doctor in horror, the Time Lord's face was almost as white as the skin of the girl clutched so desperately in his arms but an icy resolve was forming there.

"Give me that screwdriver, Jack!" the Doctor commanded. "And take Rose, bring her into the TARDIS."

"But Doctor, the TARDIS…"

"Just do it!" The Doctor's furious tone brooked no refusal.

"Doctor, she's…" The ex time agent's voice was stricken as he took Rose from the Doctor.

"I know!" the Doctor ground out, his teeth clenched.

As he swept into the TARDIS he held both screwdrivers, his and the Master's ahead of him. "I'm sorry old girl." He whispered as he activated both screwdrivers.

The TARDIS screamed as the beams hit the console, the sound curdled the Doctor's blood but he didn't relent. The invisible barrier at the door faded and Jack stepped through with Rose in his arms as the cloister bell begun to toll, it's mournful cry echoing around the ship.

"Follow me! Hurry up!" the Doctor shouted as he sprinted to the sick-bay, surrounded by the screams of his agonised ship.

"Quick!" The Doctor commanded as he rushed inside, Jack hot on his heels. Together, they placed her on a gurney.

"We've got to drain her blood, replace it with clean blood while I synthesise an antidote."

"Will that work?" Jack's scepticism was overlaid with hope.

"I have to try." Was the Doctor's only response. He'd already incubated Rose and was inserting a needle into her arm.

With Rose as stable as was possible under the circumstances, with one tube feeding her blood and another tube taking it away the Doctor set about analysing the sample he'd taken from the blood that was being drained.

"Will the TARDIS be able to help you?" Jack asked, worried that the damage she'd sustained would prevent her from carrying out anything complex.

"Quicker if I do it myself." The doctor muttered, separating the sample into vials, adding drops of this or that and analysing the results under a microscope. Determination flashing in his eyes he started mixing an antidote.

"You've done it?" Jack's voice was an equal mix of awe and relief.

For the first time in a long time the Doctor's face broke into a smile. "Didn't I ever tell you that I'm brilliant?"

He dashed to Rose's side. One syringe-full of antidote into her skin and one into the bag of blood feeding her. He stood back from his work, his hands suddenly bereft of anything to do, he drew a seat next to the gurney and held one of her hands in both of his.

And so they waited. Neither daring to leave the room, but with each passing hour Rose's condition improved.

"What did you do to the TARDIS?" Jack asked, hours later the cloister bell was still booming.

"She's very, very angry with me." The Doctor acknowledged with a grimace. "But I had to hurt her enough to let us in. I can fix the damage I've done. I probably shouldn't step outside until she's forgiven me though, I she might not let me back in."

Finally, after many hours of waiting, Rose started to show signs of awakening. The hand that wasn't held in the Doctor's grasp reached up to claw at the tube in her mouth.

dwdwdwdwdwdw

The first thing that registered as Rose started to awaken was that she hurt. A lot. She tried to swallow but there was something blocking her throat, something hard and uncomfortable, she reached up, her arm numb and heavy to claw the obstruction away.

"Not yet." A voice murmured gently, a hand staying hers.

That didn't sound like the Master. That sounded like… but it couldn't be! She opened her eyes a crack.

It was. It was him. It was the Doctor!

Her eyes opened fully and she stared up at him dazed. Relief and disbelief flooding through her in equal portions. She smiled as best she could around the tube in her mouth.

"Oh, Rose." He murmured, brokenly as he caught her gaze in his. "I thought I'd lost you."

Tears formed, unbidden in her eyes as she gazed back. How long had it been since he'd looked at her like that? The bond, once so strong between them, had been shattered that day when her future self had materialised at Canary Wharf. But right now, as he looked at her, his expression so full of emotion, it was as though the events of the last two weeks had melted away.

Her senses told her that she was in the TARDIS, she had no idea how that had happened but she was suffused with happiness that it had. She'd thought she'd never see the inside of this ship again. The beautiful little blue box that had become her home.

An unearthly clangour coming from somewhere in the TARDIS caught her attention and she looked around noticing Jack for the first time. Catching her look, he smiled broadly and walked over to her. Both of her hands had been captured by the Doctor so he contented himself with pushing her hair back from her face.

"Nice to see you again, Rose." He grinned at the understatement.

She tried to make a noise. She just wanted this damn tube out of her throat. She struggled to release one of her hands from the Doctor's grip and pointed to the obstruction in her mouth.

"Okay." He nodded. "Just relax for me. This is going to feel a bit strange."

He was right, it felt extremely weird, a bit like a backwards swallow, as the tube was pulled, slowly and gently out of her airway causing her to gag.

She was left with a horrible, chemical taste in her mouth and a scratchy feeling at the back of her throat.

After the Doctor had helped her sip some water, Jack left the room saying he had to share the news with Gwen and Ianto.

Rose had no idea who Gwen and Ianto were, but she was grateful for the time alone with the Doctor, especially now that she was able to speak.

"So, we're in the TARDIS?"

The Doctor nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, TARDIS sick-bay, doesn't get much use but that's actually a good thing."

"What's that noise?"

"That's ur.. that's the TARDIS, but it's fine, she'll be fine."

"I didn't think you were coming."

"Oh, Rose." His eyes narrowed with hurt. "Why would you think that? For even a second?"

"I dunno, I jus'…." She tried to think of the right words to express what she was feeling without hurting him more. "I just thought, after everything, after what I did – what the future me did – an' then you were so angry an' I thought you were jus' waiting for the opportunity to get rid of me."

"Rose, you'd been taken hostage!" The Doctor's face was hard, his tone disbelieving. "You think I'd just let that go?!"

"I thought maybe… you'd probably come for the TARDIS." She admitted in a small voice. "an' that you'd leave it to Jack to find me, 'cause you didn't know about the poison so..." she broke off.

The Doctor swallowed, hard as he tried to compose his expression. "You really think that?" His voice broke a little as he spoke.

She looked away, unable to bear the expression of hurt on his face.

"Rose." His tone was urgent, "What have I ever done to make you think that?" he cupped her chin in his hand, turning her head and demanding her attention.

"On that day that my father died, you left me. You stormed off and if there hadn't been something wrong with the TARDIS you wouldn't have come back."

"I was coming back. I was never gonna leave you there, Rose. Never."

"an' then you left me an' Mickey on that spaceship when you went back to France for _her_" she knew she sounded petulant, even childish, but they'd never really talked about that one. It was like, 'oh, yeah, you've fallen in love with a French aristocrat and now you're leaving me stranded so you can go and live with her and not come back… but yeah, that's fine…'

His expression darkened at the mention of France. "Rose, Reinette Poisson was a fixed point in time, I had no choice! If she'd died prematurely at the hands of clockwork droids from the future it would've changed the entire course of history!"

"So?" She breathed with a short laugh, smiling in spite of herself.

He smiled back, indulgently, and cupped her face more firmly with his hand, his thumb caressing her cheek. "And you know what Rose Tyler?"

Her heart was hammering in her chest. "What?" she breathed.

"If that ever happened again, I'd…" he broke off as Jack rushed into the room.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor Who

I'm really thrilled to see that people are reading this. Thank you! Reviews would be really lovely, I'd love to know what you think.

This chapter tidies up and closes off the first part of the story. It's a bit more fluff than substance but after all that's happened, it sort of needed to be.

There's a long way to go yet though. I don't know if that's good or bad new s for you ;)

**Chapter 11**

"Doctor! Gwen and Ianto have just had news. There's been a sighting of the Master in Cardiff!

The Doctor looked up at Jack's anxious, excited face. "Right, well… the thing is, Jack, the TARDIS can't really go anywhere at the moment."

"What's wrong with the TARDIS, Doctor?" Rose asked, worried.

"Well…" the Doctor struggled for a second to think of an explanation that meant he didn't need to tell her what he'd had to do to get her inside.

"What did the Master do to it?" She demanded.

"The Master, oh him! Yeah!" The Doctor seized on the opportunity she presented him. "He messed up the console room quite a bit and she needs a fair amount fixing before we can go anywhere."

Jack gave him a look which clearly said 'More lies…?'

The Doctor shrugged in return. "Right now the first priority is to get Rose better, then to get the TARDIS in working order. Can your Torchwood team keep an eye on him?"

"Yeah." Jack said, clearly taken aback.

"Doctor, I'm fine!" Rose protested.

"No you're not. So get them to 'check in' – or whatever – with you so that you can keep me up to date?"

"Consider it done." And with that, he swept back out of the room.

"Doctor?" Rose grabbed at his sleeve.

"Hmmm?"

"What were you about to say when Jack came in?"

He pondered for a second. He'd been about to say that if they were in that situation again where he had to make a choice between staying with Rose or abandoning her to save the Earth, then he'd stay with Rose and history be damned… but the moment for that had passed. And how much of that sentiment had been fuelled by his relief that she was here… with him… alive? He was a Time Lord, he had responsibilities – and he shouldn't have to remind himself about that as much as he did.

He saw her face fall for a second before she hitched a wide, if synthetic smile, back on it.

"Does it hurt?" he was referring to the after effects of the poison, but for a second her wounded expression told him she was applying the question to something else.

"Do you want some pain relief?" he clarified.

Her expression smoothed, "Oh, yeah. Please."

"I fixed your bullet wound for you while you were out." He said then, wanting to distract her from their previous conversation as he fetched the analgesic and replenished her glass of water.

"Really?" She tentatively put her hand to her side. "How'd you do that?"

"Dermal Regenerator." He smiled at her.

"Dummer wha'?"

"Dermal Regenerator." He said more slowly, amused.

"Haven't they got one of those on Star Trek?"

"You watch Star Trek?" that was a surprise! "Yeah, I think they might have." He didn't want to admit that that's where he'd got the name from.

"Not me, Mickey." She said, shaking her head. "He used to watch it when he was round my mum's. Used to drive my mum nuts!" She smiled at the memory, her smile faltered a little and he guessed it was because she'd suddenly remembered that her mum was gone.

"Hey." He said gently, taking her hand and squeezing it for a second before placing the painkillers in her palm. "I wish I could take you to see her, Rose. But you know I can't?"

"Mmm hmm." She nodded, swallowing the pills. "I know. And I told you, I made my choice a long time ago. I don't regret it. I just miss her."

"I know." He pulled her into a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay, Rose." He closed his eyes for a moment, breathing in her scent, trying not to picture what it would be like if he had actually lost her.

"Me too!" she laughed into his chest as she returned the embrace. "Thank you, Doctor. An' I'm so sorry about before."

He smiled into her hair. "I'm the one who's should be sorry, Rose." He broke away to look at her. "I meant to come back you know. If the TARDIS hadn't taken us into the future and then been stolen by the Master, I was planning to come back to Canary Wharf for just after I'd left you."

She looked up at him in confusion. "Really? But you'd've crossed your own time stream."

He smiled at her proudly. "Weeelll…" he said, amused. "On the face of it that's really nothing compared to what your future self had just done!" He nudged her playfully, grinning, before his face turned serious again.

"And if I hadn't shut you out, you wouldn't have felt the need to run out of the flat. I'm so sorry about that Rose. How much did you hear?"

"Enough." She said sadly, looking away for a second.

"I don't think you did. But we'll talk about it later. Okay?" he waited for her to look up at him. She nodded with a small smile.

"And… I didn't think this needed saying before, I thought it was kind of obvious in fact, but don't drink any of Jack's alcohol now you've taken those pills." He grinned widely at her and his heart soared when she grinned at him in return.

"Can I get up now?" She asked, her eyes straying to the tubes and monitoring equipment plugged into her body.

"Yeah, course. You should be okay now. But take it easy, you might be a bit dizzy." He detached the tubes and wires from her and helped her to her feet.

"I'm starving!" she confessed, with a laugh.

"Right, of course! First stop's the kitchen then, and then to the console room so I can start repairing the damage the Master did."

"Can't I go to bed?" She asked. "I'm really tired."

"Well, Rose. The thing is…" What was the thing? The thing was that he wasn't leaving her alone anywhere on the TARDIS for fear of what the TARDIS might do to her. At least until she was fixed and accepting Rose's presence. "The thing is, I need to keep a close eye on you to make sure that there are no after effects from the poison that I haven't considered."

"Oh, okay." She nodded happily, seeming to accept that.

Several hours later Rose was asleep, curled up on the chair in the console room, the Doctor's trench coat wrapped snugly around her, the remains of her snack on the floor beside the chair. The cloister bell had finally stopped ringing and the TARDIS was repaired. She still wasn't happy with him though and she was still annoyed at having Rose on board, although the Doctor was convinced his TARDIS wasn't going to do anything to harm the human, but she probably wouldn't let her back in if she stepped outside.

"Rose." He shook her gently. "Rose, you're okay now. You can go to bed if you want."

She didn't stir.

Smiling he hoisted her into his arms, trench coat and all and carried her to her bedroom. Upon opening the door and seeing the devastation though, he decided on another course of action. The TARDIS had destroyed Rose's room. The bed, chest of drawers and wardrobe were all in tatters. He was relieved to see that none of her personal items seemed broken, just strewn around the room, but everything the TARDIS had constructed had been smashed apart. Sighing and shaking his head he carried her to the library, the journey taking longer than it should have as the TARDIS kept switching corridors on him.

Once he'd got her comfortable on one of the leather settees and covered her once again with his trench coat he retreated.

"Don't you dare!" he warned the TARDIS in a deadly whisper as he left the room to find Jack, Gwen and Ianto.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Doctor Who

Thank you to everyone who's reading and following. It means a lot, it really does!

Okay, in order for my story to progress, I needed to cover some of the Runaway Bride episode, otherwise London gets destroyed by a giant spider, right? Can't have that. Plus I need Donna later on. I'm not going to revisit the whole episode – 'cause we've all seen it, and I need it to be a bit different anyway. Plus, that episode was very much created for humour, and that doesn't work for this right now - so I've tried very hard to tone the humour down without changing Donna's character. I found this chapter really hard to write and I'm not sure I'm happy with it – I just need this stuff to happen so I can get on with the story. I really hope it works, but would love to hear what you think.

**Chapter 12**

There was no morning, afternoon or night in the TARDIS – time existed in a neither here-nor-there capacity, and the different variations of time she could find herself in were infinite - varying from planetary time - to galactic time - to universal time…

The TARDIS herself kept quantum time but the observant could be forgiven for thinking that the sentient ship adjusted the intensity and hue of the interior lighting to mimic Earth-light. Because in fact, she did.

However the ship was feeling particularly spiteful at the moment, specifically towards the human woman whose presence, although physical in this universe, was also intrinsically linked with a past, present and future in another universe.

An unnatural and conflicting state for anything to be in, and therefore something that certainly didn't belong in the TARDIS.

So although it was late morning, the TARDIS Library lights were off as was the heating, and consequently the normally cheery and warm room was black as a desert night and just as cold.

dwdwdwdwdw

It was the discomfort that awoke Rose. She hadn't really had enough sleep and was groggy and disoriented when she opened her eyes and saw nothing but darkness.

Her thoughts only registered the cold and the dark and the feel of chilly leather against her cheek from the settee. Of course, her lumbering, sleep deprived thoughts, when overlaid with the very recent experiences of her abduction and poisoning, led her - quite naturally - to believe that the rescue and subsequent cure had not happened.

dwdwdwdwdw

The Doctor, having completed the repairs on the TARDIS had been trying to programme the central computer to locate the Master using a trace from the vortex manipulator he'd stolen from Jack. He was only able to code the computer to find it in current time though. And as, according to Torchwood, the Master had vanished again, he wasn't even able to test if it worked.

But if - well, not if - _when_ the Master returned to the present, the Doctor should be able to locate him within 2 metres, or thereabouts…

What he really needed to do was to take the TARDIS out for a quick spin to check the repairs he'd made, but with Rose still having no future in this universe he didn't want to go anywhere that there might be danger.

And let's face it, that was everywhere they went, pretty much all of the time.

Maybe just a quick hop into the vortex and back..? Rose was still sleeping and they'd be out and back before anyone noticed.

Nodding to himself, he flipped the lever to dematerialise and the TARDIS jolted into the vortex with a whine and a clatter. It was a bit rougher than usual but to be expected on the first trip out after so much damage, there was still quite a bit of fine tuning to do. Plus she was still pretty angry with him so some of the turbulence might be her way of venting her fury.

It was as he was bracing himself, with one Converse-clad foot against a coral support, another perched on top of the console and both hands trying to re-stabilise his ship, that he saw the golden light flooding into the TARDIS, and a white wedding dress complete with veil appeared in-between the console and the doors.

"What?!" He jumped down from the console, stunned.

The apparition turned at the sound of his voice and he realised the wedding dress complete with veil was also complete with bride, wide eyed, red haired and horrified.

"Oh!" she gasped.

"What?" he squeaked again, stupefied.

"Who are you?!" she demanded

"What?"

"Where am I?"

"WHAT?!"

It was at that point that an eldritch scream rang through the corridors of the TARDIS, jolting them both.

"What was that?" She demanded. "What the hell is this place? Who else have you got in here?!"

He shook his head frantically, "No that was… "ROSE!" He gaped in sudden realisation. His feet had already taken off running, stopping abruptly as he was torn, half in and half out of the console room – the redhead still screaming at him.

"Stay here!" he shouted before turning back to the exit and sprinting down the corridor.

"Oh no you don't!" she screeched, hitching up the skirts of her wedding dress she raced after him..

"Who've you got in here?! How many women have you kidnapped? You PERVERT!"

"It's not like that!" The Doctor roared as he ran. "She's my friend!"

"Then why is she screaming? What's wrong with her?"

"Lights!" The Doctor commanded harshly as he ran into the Library. With a disgruntled flicker the TARDIS complied, bringing noon lighting into the room.

Rose's screaming got even louder, if that were possible, at the angry shout and the sudden brightness.

"Oh my God! What have you done to her?!" The redhead ran into the room placing herself between the hysterical Rose and the Doctor.

"Rose!" The Doctor shouted, trying to dart around the woman now blocking his path.

Rose screamed even louder, her hands were locked in tight fists in her hair, her body clenched into a ball.

"She's having a panic attack! Let me get to her! I won't hurt her, I promise." He pleaded.

The woman looked between him and Rose for a moment, torn with indecision before finally relenting. "You'd better not or you'll have me to answer to!"

Huffing with exasperation the Doctor skidded to his knees by the settee, reaching his long arms around his companion to hold her.

"Rose, it's me." He said softly. "You're in the TARDIS, you're safe. I'm here."

"Doctor?"

"Yeah," he laughed shakily with relief. "It's me, come on. Look at me?" he encouraged, pulling her hair away from her face.

She took a shaky breath, looking up at him with puffy, red rimmed eyes. "It's really you?"

"Yeah." He smiled. "You're safe, you're okay, I've got you."

She closed her eyes and clung to him, trembling.

"What happened Rose?" he asked gently.

"I woke up and it was dark." She swallowed. "I thought I was still with… _him_."

"I'm so sorry, Rose. I'm so sorry." He inwardly cursed the TARDIS savagely for messing around with the lights.

"It's okay. 'm okay." She nodded into his chest. "Where am I?"

"TARDIS library." He said, his voice still low.

"What 'm I doing in the library?"

"You were fast asleep and I couldn't take you to your room because…" he broke off. He hadn't thought how to tell her about that.

"Because…?" she prompted, anxiety colouring her tone.

"Later." He whispered.

She looked up at him, her eyes questioning.

"Later okay?" he smiled and gently brushed the tears from her cheeks with his fingertips.

She nodded, accepting. It was then that her eyes flickered to the woman in her wedding gown.

"Who's she?!" She sat back suddenly, breaking from the Doctor's embrace, her eyes wide with shock.

"She's… I dunno actually." The Doctor admitted, shaking his head. "Who are you?" he stood, facing her.

"Donna." The woman said shortly,

"I'm the Doctor," he smiled widely "And this is Rose and you're on board the TARDIS."

"The wha'?"

"The TARDIS. Look, how did you get on board?"

"Well, you tell me! You kidnapped me! I was supposed to be getting married!"

"But it's impossible! You shouldn't be able to lock onto the TARDIS and transport yourself inside!"

"Doctor!" Rose called urgently, gasping.

He turned sharply to see her hunching over, her face pale.

Within an instant he was back on his knees beside her. "What's wrong?"

"I think I'm gonna…" and with that she turned her head retched, emptying the contents of her stomach onto the library floor.

"I'm sorry!" she cried. Overwhelmed, she started to sob.

"Oh, Rose." He sighed, rubbing her back. "It's okay, really it's okay."

It wasn't often that he found himself stumped, but right there, right then, he was. He had a sick and broken Rose, clearly needing his full attention and he had a complex puzzle in a white lacy dress which could spell the end of the universe… or could simply be an innocuous, however freakish accident.

As his highly tuned Time Lord mind was trying to figure out how he could both take care of Rose and find out how and why this woman, Donna, he reminded himself, had appeared in the TARDIS, the two women helped resolve the issue for him.

"Look." Donna said, in a much softer tone to the one she'd been using previously. "I know your friend's sick and you want to help her, but I really need to get to my wedding."

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm sorry. I can't."

"It's okay." Rose said, half smiling, half grimacing with the nausea still rolling through her. "You should help her."

"Rose, I can't."

"Course you can." Her grin didn't quite reach her eyes but it was reassuring to see it none the less.

"What about you?" He asked softly, concerned.

"I'll sit in the console room, yeah?"

"Okay." He sighed, clearly not happy but also not able to think of any other solution. And as long as Rose was with him, and as long as she was in the TARDIS she was in the safest place anyway.

Or so he thought.


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer:** Not mine

Thank you so much for the fave's, follows and reviews! Really, really, thanks!

Regarding the next chapter. I seriously don't hate Rose – trust me. It's just going to take the Doctor a little while to figure out what's going on. It's all a bit topsy-turvy right now but I'm sure he'll work it out, he's pretty damn clever after all...! I'd love to know what you think so far!

**Chapter 13**

Rose wasn't used to waiting and she _definitely_ wasn't used to being left behind. The Doctor – after reassuring himself that Rose was well enough to be left for a minute or two, and after promising to be straight back – had run outside with their unexpected passenger to return her to her wedding. Rose had been 'forbidden' to leave the TARDIS in the meantime. In fact he'd told her to stay in the console room and said he'd explain everything when he got back.

He'd been gone a lot more than a few minutes though and Rose was getting anxious…

In fact, she'd just begun sidling up to the doors when they burst open and the Doctor charged in, bouncing with wild energy.

"Rose, quick, help me!" he shouted, running over to the console.

"What's goin' on?"

"It's Donna, she's being abducted by a robot dressed as Father Christmas, driving a London cab!"

Rose felt a surge of excitement that was unpleasantly mingled with envy. Excitement for the promise of adventure unfolding before them and envy that she hadn't been there at the start of it. She wasn't used to that either.

"Hold that there!" The Doctor instructed as he ran back to the doors and flung them wide open.

She did as he asked and twisted her neck uncomfortably to look over her shoulder to see what the Doctor was doing. She was surprised to see that the TARDIS was in flight – not normal into the vortex flight – but actually, properly flying… over the motorway?

She could hear the Doctor yelling at Donna to "Jump!" and then the console started sparking and smoking.

"Doctor!" she called, urgently.

"I know!" he shouted in reply. "Just hold on as long as you can! Come on Donna, JUMP! I'll catch you!"

After they'd both tumbled into the TARDIS the Doctor relinquished Rose's grip on the lever and set about the slightly smouldering console with a fire extinguisher.

"It's not too bad." He coughed through the smoke. "Would've been much worse if you weren't here, Rose, thank you."

Rose half shrugged. "What happened? You were gone ages!"

"Like I said. Bit of trouble with robot Santas!" the Doctor grinned widely as he dashed exuberantly around the console, plotting their next destination. "Plus Donna here doesn't have any pockets!"

Rose fought the wave of resentment rising within her. This wasn't how it was supposed to be!

For an instant she'd wondered if this was how Mickey had felt. Hearing titbits from the Doctor and Rose as they laughed about their crazy adventures, but never really being part of it… The spare part. The tin dog…

"So what now?" she asked, dully. Tying to distract herself from her thoughts.

The Doctor looked over at Rose as though suddenly noticing her – even though he'd just been talking to her.

"You okay?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Good! So now we get Donna back to her family!" with a flourish, he threw the lever to dematerialise.

"You'd better take this." He said quietly to Donna, handing her something that Rose couldn't see.

"You wha'?" Donna stepped hurriedly back from him.

"It's a bio-damper!" The Doctor explained impatiently, as if anyone should know what that meant. "It'll stop those things finding you again."

"Alright spaceman, just keep your hands off me!"

Rose couldn't help noticing – mostly because she was focussing all of her concentration on their exchange – that the Doctor had given Donna a ring, sort of like a gold wedding band. As Donna slipped it on her ring finger Rose felt a sudden tightness in her chest and fought down another wave of jealousy.

"Rose, stay in the TARDIS, I won't be long."

"You're not leavin' me behind again!"

"Stay in the TARDIS!"

"No chance! I'm coming with you!"

"You can't."

"I'm coming!"

"I won't let you!"

"You can't stop me!" and with that she grabbed her jacket and made a run for the doors.

dwdwdwdw

She didn't know how much time had passed when she woke but she was alone once again in the console room. Her jacket had been padded up to support her head and she had been covered with the Doctor's trench coat.

"NO!" she screamed in frustration. He'd used that telepathy mind trick thing to put her to sleep! The last thing she remembered was him reaching around her to touch his fingers to her temples.

The bastard! She threw his coat off her and jumped to her feet, enraged.

She had no idea how long they'd been gone but she was determined to find him. Shrugging into her jacket she reached for the door and pulled…

Frowning, she tried again.

"Aaaaarrhh!" she pounded the door in anger. "Lemme out!" she shouted at the TARDIS.

…Nothing happened. Yeah, she hadn't really expected that to work. And now her hand was hurting.

He'd locked the doors! Or told the TARDIS not to let her out or something. This was getting completely out of hand!

But pounding the doors and stamping round the console room wasn't getting her anywhere. It was just tiring her out because she was so exhausted, really bone deep weary, tired. It had been a long time since she'd slept properly.

She let out an exasperated sigh that was almost a growl and slouched, morosely to her room.

She cried out, horror-struck as she opened the door. Her room was DESTROYED! Completely wrecked! The shattered remains of the furniture were barely even recognisable.

Was this why the Doctor hadn't let her go to her room before? What the hell had happened in here?! Had this been the Master's work? And why had the Doctor been so elusive about it?

She spun away, tears springing from her eyes. The TARDIS was her home! And her room in the TARDIS doubly so!

She stumbled into the corridor, meaning to head back to the console room. But either she went the wrong way or the TARDIS had switched the corridors around for some reason. The next room she ended up in seemed to be a sort of gallery…

Dozens of framed photographs of different sizes lined the walls. She rubbed her eyes free from the blur of tears and looked from photograph to photograph.

They were all of people waving or grinning at the camera. But, at first glance, she couldn't see anybody that she recognised. Who were they? And what were they doing in here?

There, in black and white, a young woman with short dark hair peered shyly out at the camera. Another frame held the smiling, slightly serious expression of a young boy with black hair and a gold star pinned on his shirt. Further along the wall there was a photo of a girl in a black bomber jacket decorated with badges, a huge, joyous grin on her face. And there, was a young lad in his school uniform… Really, who these people? And why were their pictures in this room?

As she continued to look she felt a jolt of recognition. That was Sarah Jane! She smiled at the sense of familiarity in what had become a very alien-feeling room. And there! That was her! Rose Tyler in her Union Jack Tee-Shirt! Grinning at the camera. She remembered the Doctor taking the photograph, and there was Mickey and Jack! She felt a sudden sense of relief at these familiar sights which was quickly followed by a sharp stab of fear as it dawned on her who these people all were.

These must be the people that had travelled with the Doctor. His companions. Which was great but... there were so very many of them. Hers was just one photograph among literally dozens!

She swallowed down the anxiety rising in her. After all he'd pretty much told her that had been the case that night outside the chip shop where he'd fixed K9. Seeing it for herself… was a little bit different though.

It would have been better if they'd seen this room together. Less painful… he could've told her the names of the people, where he'd met them, the adventures they'd had…

What they'd meant to him…

Her breath caught in her throat with an audible groan when her eyes caught the photo of a stunning young woman with long, slightly wild hair, wearing a tight vest with a plunging neckline and what couldn't even be described as a skirt. Her long, toned thighs were bare all the way to her hips.

Oh my God! The Doctor travelled with her?! And she dressed like that?! Rose felt sick. She didn't want to see anymore and she had just turned to leave the room when one last thing caught her attention. There was an empty frame which she was sure hadn't been there before. Her heart stuttered in her chest… this empty frame seemed to speak louder than all of the others. What did it mean? Whose had it been?

Or perhaps, she should have been asking, whose was it going to be?

Too tired and confused to find her way back to the console room she slumped to the floor, sitting cross legged on the cold grating, wishing she'd brought the Doctor's trench coat with her there was a chill in the air.

That was where the Doctor found her. Cold, dishevelled and completely fed up.

"ROSE! I told you not to wander off. The TARDIS she's not… it's just not a good idea right now. Anyway, what are you doing out here?"

"Rose? Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She sniffed, trying to stop her breath hitching. "You were gone for hours."

"Yeah, sorry Rose. I'm really sorry." He sat down next to her. "But, Donna! You should've seen her Rose she was brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, she's gone home now. Shame, real shame… you'd've really liked her, but she was just…"

"Brilliant?" Rose grumbled sarcastically.

"Yeah. You sure you're okay? Have you been crying?"

"Nah! 'course not. Just tired." Rose hurriedly wiped her face with the sleeve of her jacket. "So, go on then Doctor. What did she do?"

"She stopped me from going too far." His voice was low with awe. "She might even have saved my life."

"Good ol' Donna." Rose mumbled quietly, her heart breaking.

And then too low for the Doctor to hear

"That was my job once."


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Doctor Who

Thank you to everyone who's reading this. I meant to update last week but work's been taking up pretty much all of my time and energy.

I'm going to post two chapters at once, I've had a relatively quiet Sunday afternoon and I was really missing writing this story – so here goes. I hope you like it.

**Chapter 14**

"Oh, Rose." He sighed sadly. "It's still your job." He knew she hadn't meant him to hear that but he had. Guilt pooled within him. He reached for her hand and squeezed it.

"I think it's time for some explanations, Rose."

She was biting her lip, apprehension in her eyes as she turned her head to look at him. They were still sitting on the cold metal floor in the corridor where he'd found her. Their backs resting against the wall. They could easily move to somewhere more comfortable, and part of him wanted to do that, to find an excuse to put off this conversation, even for a little while… but he knew if he did that, he'd keep finding reasons to delay… he couldn't put it off any longer, there was too much at stake.

"I think you've already overheard some of this, and some of it you might've guessed, but I'm going to start from the beginning and tell you what I know. But believe me when I say I haven't got everything worked out yet…

And I'm sorry, Rose, I'm so sorry, but some of this is going to be… _difficult_ for you to hear. I really wish I could spare you that but I think there are things that you need to know."

"Just tell me, Doctor. Whatever it is, however bad it is… just tell me."

He nodded. "Okay, you remember Peter Tyler suddenly appearing in that room at Torchwood?"

"Yeah, couldn't really forget that! I suppose he was there to take me to that other universe?"

"That's right. And in a way he did, because you came back, you found a way to cross dimensions and you stopped yourself falling." He paused for a second. "Pretty impressive, by the way, if not really, really dangerous."

She half smiled, still braced for whatever was to come.

"And then your future self flickered out. Stopped existing because time had been changed, and that seemed to be an end of it… but it wasn't."

"How d'you mean?"

The Doctor swallowed. This was the tricky part, the part he hadn't fully worked out yet and as far as he could tell, it was still in flux, nothing was set yet.

"Rose, the other universe, Pete's universe had a place for you. There was something, perhaps lots of things, you had to do there… Just like it had been in this universe. How many times have you helped me save the universe here? So many times Rose Tyler, it was fated, it was your purpose."

"Yeah, I heard that bit when you were talking to Jack, but now I'm not supposed to exist right?"

"Not quite. You are supposed to exist Rose, just not here. That other universe needed you, I don't know what for but maybe you were supposed to save that one too. Only now you can't."

"So you think I should try and get back there?" she shook her head and snorted in disbelief.

"That's not gonna happen! I'm not just going to leave you!"

He squeezed her hand again. "You can't anyway. Like I said before, travel between parallel universes is impossible. When the sphere broke through the walls between dimensions, it made it possible, for a while at least. But it couldn't be sustained and now that breach has closed we can't ever reopen it."

"So what does that mean for me?" she pulled her hand from his, wiping her palms distractedly on her jeans for a second before hugging her knees up to her chest, defensive, bracing herself for the worst.

"It's not just about you anymore, Rose." He explained gently, putting his hand on her shoulder to maintain the physical contact, to let her know that she wasn't on her own. That whatever he was about to say, he was still here, still with her.

"This has become so much bigger than that… And that's where we come to the TARDIS."

Rose's eyes flickered to him in alarm. She'd known something was wrong, that somehow she'd affected the TARDIS, but did she know how deep that went? How much had she guessed?

"When you opened the heart of the TARDIS and looked into the time vortex you absorbed it. I know you don't remember any of this, you're not supposed to, but the TARDIS formed a connection with you, a bond, and sometimes you can feel her inside your mind, am I right?"

Rose nodded slightly, her gaze dropping to the floor. "I think so; I thought I was imagining it most of the time but yeah, sometimes."

"So, remembering what I said about that other universe, and the fact that you were supposed to be there. Imagine this; imagine if your purpose there was so strong that the universe hasn't accepted the change."

"I don't get it, what am I supposed to be imagining?"

"Well, so far as I can deduce, and this is me being exceptionally clever and having no real evidence by the way! But as far as I can make out, although your physical presence exists in this universe, your future your present, your very essence exists in the other universe… and that… well that's actually completely impossible… but impossible seems to be your forte at the moment."

"So if my 'essence' as you call it, is in the other universe, shouldn't I be able to feel it?"

"You're human, with normal human senses, you don't have the ability to feel that and no reason why you should, like I said, it's impossible. But the TARDIS can feel it; she's connected to your physical presence here and your essence in the other universe through the same single bond… remember when we landed in that other universe Rose, the TARDIS couldn't function because that universe was incompatible? Well, it's kind of like that, but it's more than that."

Rose's eyes widened in horror as the realisation begun to dawn on her.

"It's hurting her, Rose." The Doctor said gently, tightening his grip on her shoulder in reassurance as she gasped in a ragged sob.

"I didn't mean to hurt her! I didn't! I didn't know! " she blurted, while clearly trying to fight down a bout of hysteria.

"I know, Rose, I know." He waited patiently for her breathing to slow, all the while maintaining a firm grip on her shoulder.

"The thing is, she can't cope with the bond, Rose, not when it's tearing her apart, and she's been trying to sever it but she can't and she's…" he broke off, she'd heard enough, she didn't need to know exactly how much pain she'd caused.

"So she trashed my room…" Rose exhaled in horrified realisation. "Oh, God! I thought it was the Master… oh, my God!" Rose lost what little control she had over her emotions and the Doctor wrapped his arms around her, pulling her head to his chest and waiting patiently for the guilt-loaded grief to run its course.

"It's not your fault Rose." He reassured her, tightening his grip. "Even the future you couldn't have known what would happen – and I can't be sure it'll work, but I'm trying to fix it."

"But I'm hurting her! Just me bein' here is hurting her, right?"

The Doctor clenched his jaw and chose not to answer.

"It is!" she shrieked, taking his silence for acknowledgment. She pulled herself roughly out of his embrace. "I have to get out of here!" She scrambled to her feet.

"Rose, no!" he barked, jumping up and reaching for her and missing as she turned and sprinted down the corridor. He tore after her.

"Rose! Stop!"

He caught up with her just before she reached the main doors, yanking her arm and spinning her towards the console, pinning her there with his body while he reached around her to flick the switch to deadlock the doors.


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor Who

If you've got as far as chapter 15, then thank you for sticking with it – you deserve a medal! More, real action to come in the following chapters, I promise - and assuming you haven't worked it out already (and I hope not) all will be revealed.

**Chapter 15**

Rose froze, wide eyed in shock as the Doctor pressed his body into hers. The edge of the console was biting into her lower back but she was less aware of that than of that fact that almost every inch of his lean frame was in contact with her. And then, if it were even possible, he pressed even closer, reaching around behind her and causing her heart to jolt alarmingly into her throat before he suddenly stepped away.

Blimey! Her body grieved for the sudden loss but her mind reeled with relief. That was too bloody close! Another second and she didn't think that she'd have been able to stop herself from snogging his face off.

She staggered a little as she stepped away from the console, the sudden spike of adrenaline slowly beginning to ebb and allowing her mind to clear. She managed to compose herself and looked at him warily while keeping the doors in her peripheral vision.

"They're locked." He stated, correctly interpreting her thoughts.

"but... I don't understand. Why would you keep me here if it hurts her?"

"You can't go outside." He said, firmly.

"But why not? 'specially if it's bad for the TARDIS to keep me here."

"I can't let you. Like I said before, you're not supposed to be in this universe. I can't protect you out there."

"Well, maybe it's not your job to protect me!" she protested, indignantly. "I can look after myself!"

He shook his head. "No."

She blew out her cheeks in exasperation. "So, what? I'm s'posed to just stay in here and keep safe while you go off an' do stuff without me?!"

"I'm not going anywhere."

"What about Donna?" she scowled.

"That was a one off! She landed in the TARDIS, what was I supposed to do? That's not going to happen again!"

"So you're jus' goin' to stay in here with me? Seriously? You're sayin' we both stay stuck in here forever, or until I die of old age….? That's you master plan?" she snorted and shook her head, knowing that the Doctor would never voluntarily imprison himself in the TARDIS.

He just shrugged.

"Doctor, we both know you could never do that. An' what abou' me? What about wha' I want?" she challenged.

"So, tell me Rose Tyler." He said, enunciating every word, his eyes flickering with irritation. "What would your plan be?"

"I dunno, jus' do what we were doin' before. Land somewhere, fight monsters, save planets… you know… the usual." She squared her shoulders to try to compensate for the fact that tears were beginning to fall onto her cheeks. "It's what I want, Doctor." She pleaded, trying and failing to keep her voice from breaking.

The Doctor didn't say anything for several moments. He just watched as she tried to pull herself together, his face expressionless. Then he sighed, his eyes softening. "You're tired, Rose." He shook his head sympathetically, "you're so tired. How long's it been since you've slept properly?"

She shrugged, sniffling. She was tired, she really was. "I don't want to sleep in the library again." Her voice was hoarse with unshed tears. "Reminds me too much of… him."

He grimaced and she realised that he was still a bit raw from that experience himself. "I'm sorry about that." He said, softly. "I'm sorry you woke up alone in the dark. I honestly thought you'd know where you were, I deliberately picked somewhere that would be familiar after… well, you saw your room."

She shrugged miserably. "It's okay. I get it."

"Come with me." He reached out a hand and she took it hesitantly, wondering where he was taking her.

"The thing is..." He said, leading her into the maze of corridors "I've had quite a few people travel with me on a semi-permanent basis."

"Yeah, tell me about it." She grumbled quietly, half to herself.

He looked round at her, frowning in puzzlement at what she'd just said. "What?"

"There was this room. Just before you found me. There were loads an' loads of photos of people. I didn't know what it was at first then I realised when I saw a picture of Sarah Jane, and of me, and Mickey an' Jack… I guess…" she took a deep breath to steady herself. "I mean, I knew you'd travelled with people before, I just didn't realise it was that many and… what I mean is, Doctor, did you leave all of 'em behind like you did Sarah Jane?"

Perhaps this wasn't the best time to ask but she had to know, and now the subject had come up she couldn't ignore the opportunity to talk about it.

The Doctor's eyes widened in surprise. "Really? I'd like to see that room!" And then he seemed to catch her expression. "No Rose." He said firmly, answering her question. "No, I didn't leave them all behind. Most of them left of their own accord and…" he broke off, clearly stopping himself saying what he'd been about to say.

"And?" she prompted.

"And here we are." He said, stopping by a door an opening it with a flourish.

She glanced quickly inside without taking it in, and then turned back to him. He wasn't deflecting her this time.

"That's not what you were about to say." She stated, holding her ground as he tried to lead her into the room. She folded her arms.

"Does it need saying?" he sighed loudly in exasperation. "Some of them died, Rose. They travelled with me and they died because of it, they died because of me." She could see the pain and guilt in his eyes.

"I'm sorry!" she apologised, unfolding her arms and reaching out, admonishing herself. If she'd thought about it for just a second she would've realised what he'd been about to say. And now she'd hurt him.

He shook his head, shrugging off her embrace but grasping her hands as though he didn't want to hurt her feelings. "It's okay. Maybe it'll help you understand why I'm being so cautious." He added, quietly.

"Go on." He nodded in the direction of the open door. "You'll be okay in there."

Rose entered the room tentatively while the Doctor hovered outside. The previous owner had been heavily into the colour red, she surmised, it blazed throughout the room. The dressing table was cluttered with deodorant cans that had the tops sawn off and she could see the top of a baseball bat sticking out of a large, black rucksack in the one corner.

"Whose room was this?" She turned back round to face the Doctor.

"Ace's." he said with a warm yet sad smile. "Before she left the first time round… I should probably advise you not to touch any of those cans though. That nitro-nine of hers wasn't stable at the best of times." He gave a reminiscent chuckle.

"Ace? Nitro nine?" she prompted.

"Later, Rose." He promised. "Just sleep for now." He smiled again and reached forwards to pull the door closed.

"Leave it." Rose said quickly. She caught his surprised expression and hastened to explain.

"I mean, just… could you leave it open? I dunno, it's like when I was a kid…" she started babbling "If something scared me I'd always want to sleep with the door open, it just made me feel safer… less trapped."

"Okay." He stepped back. "Well, night then."

"Yeah." She nodded. Waiting for him to walk away before she turned and flopped down onto the bed, fully clothed. She was exhausted, totally spent.

As her thoughts tumbled blissfully into sleep she wondered what had happened to Jack. Had he gone back to Torchwood? Or was he still at that hotel waiting for them? And where had the Master got to? Was he still looking for them?

dwdwdwdwdwdw

The Doctor stepped away from the door and headed deeper into the TARDIS, her cries were becoming more subdued now that he had a plan and had started to execute it, but before he checked on his newest project his curiosity led him to another room The room that Rose had mentioned.

It was like she said. He smiled broadly when he saw their faces, all of his former companions, his cherished friends. His smile faltered when his eyes caught the picture of Adric, so young – far too young to die, and that had all been the Doctor's fault. He sighed bitterly. He'd failed him. He should've stopped him, could've saved him.  
He blushed slightly when he saw the picture of Leela, suddenly glad Rose wasn't here with him. Did she always dress so… undressed? He'd barely seemed to notice in his previous incarnation. Blimey! He wondered what people thought was going on when they'd turned up together...

And then there was Ace, grinning from ear to ear, her face so youthful, so full of joy, so innocent! That was before the Doctor had destroyed her life, broken her heart and killed all her faith in him, causing her to run off and join the Spacefleet. They'd reconciled eventually, but he still bitterly regretted not seeing how his own actions, his secrecy, his arrogant assumption that he knew what was best for her, had been affecting her until it was too late.

Why had the TARDIS put this room here? What was she trying to tell him? Or had the message been for Rose?

As he turned to leave the room he spotted something he hadn't noticed when he'd entered. There was an empty photo frame on the wall, except that it wasn't quite empty. The image was vague and unformed, a bit like a fresh photograph from a Polaroid camera. It was still developing…


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor Who.

Thanks so much to everyone that's read so far and for the fave's, follows and reviews. I'm really thrilled that some people are sticking with it! I'd love to hear what you think!

**Chapter 16**

He watched and waited for a few moments to see if the picture got any stronger but it didn't change. He frowned thoughtfully for a moment before shrugging it off. The TARDIS would make it clear in time. Sighing tiredly, he walked further into the TARDIS to check on his project.

Rose awoke slowly and stretched languidly, she was warm and content, but her skin felt dead scratchy. How long had she been wearing these clothes?

Too long! That's how long. What with one thing and another she realised that she hadn't showered in days! God, she must be honking!

Just as in her room there was an ensuite bathroom in this room too, although the products were definitely not what you'd find in Rose's bathroom, they looked like they'd be more at home in a chemistry lab than in a girl's bathroom! The surfaces were covered with glass beakers, some of which held the dried remnants of some concoction or other. Steering clear of anything unfamiliar, she selected a bottle of generic looking shower gel combined with shampoo. It was far from perfect but it would do.

Once she'd showered, and felt oh, so much better! She was at a loss as to what to wear. She could go find the TARDIS wardrobe but that would mean putting her dirty and slightly bloody clothes back on again for the trip down the corridor. Her skin cringed at the thought.

Hmmm... But this room had been occupied by a girl right?

She grinned at her discovery. Ace's wardrobe provided a plethora of skirts, tights and tops, all similarly styled. Although no jeans, Rose noted to her dismay.

Drawing the line at wearing some other girl's knickers, Rose decided to go commando, at least for now until she'd sorted something out for herself. She pulled on some black tights with a zigzag pattern down the sides, a black, mid-thigh skirt, which was a bit loose but so what? And a black and white striped crop top. She rounded off the outfit with a stout pair of Doctor Martin's boots. She could see no shoes or trainers in Ace's sparse wardrobe.

There was one thing that particularly caught her attention. A black bomber jacket, covered with badges. Some were sewn on and some were the old fashioned pin kind that you used to see a lot in the 1980s, well at least that's what Rose had heard, she was too young to remember. Some of them seemed to be spacey stuff, like NASA etc… but seriously, was that a Blue Peter Badge?

Rose chuckled. She realised now she'd seen the jacket in one of those photos, a youngish looking girl with a huge grin all over her face. So that was Ace…! Rose wondered what had become of her. She pondered the jacket for a second then shrugged it on, pulling her damp hair up in a pony tail.

She'd been heading for what she thought was the console room when she heard sounds coming from behind her. The unmistakable clatter and sigh of the Doctor tinkering with something. Assuming she'd erred in her direction, she turned back around and headed towards the noise.

The room she walked into wasn't the console room though.

It was a large, white, airy room with a large, white marble-looking column in the middle. The Doctor was sat, cross legged on the floor, tinkering with a small metal box with a nest of tangled wires jutting out the side.

He looked around as she entered the room. "ACE?!" his head snapped right round and he dropped the box with a clatter. "Rose! Blimey! What d'you dress like that for?"

She shrugged, secretly amused at his reaction. She'd had so little fun in the last few days. "Got nothing to wear, Doctor."

"Right, yeah… well there's always the TARDIS wardrobe."

"Didn't fancy that." She admitted. Partly acknowledging to herself that with the TARDIS as it was with her, she'd be lucky to come away with any clothes at all.

"Right." He was still a bit wild eyed.

"What'ya doin'?" she asked, joining him on the floor.

"I'm…" he looked down at the box he'd just dropped, picking it up thoughtfully. "I'm er… I'm growing another TARDIS."

"You're what?!" she was understandably stunned. "Why?"

"Because, well… and I'm not sure if this'll work, but the TARDIS thinks it might, it could help with the dual connection thing… you know, like I told you earlier? Two TARDISs for two connections… might work. I dunno, but I had to try."

"How on Earth do you grow another TARDIS?"

"Well…. Not on Earth for starters – wrong sort of energies, it would take too long."

"Doctor!"

"Oh, it's not that difficult. You just take a piece of the TARDIS and give it some energy, the right sort of energy, Time Lord energy, then you wait… it usually takes quite a lot of time, I've been trying to speed up the process."

"How d'you mean, 'Time Lord' energy?"

"I mean I've been giving her some of my… well, my life I guess. Twenty years so far..." He seemed to be avoiding looking at her.

"You've been giving away years of your life?" she demanded, incredulous.

"Yup. No other way you see."

Rose didn't know what to say, she fiddled with the zip on her jacket. "So does that mean, what…?" She giggled nervously, "you're gonna regenerate now or somethin'?" she bit her lip, dreading the answer.

"Nah! Look at me, do I look at Death's door to you?" he finally looked over to her, his eyes meeting with hers, his eyebrows wiggled.

She chuckled lightly, "No. Guess not… but how much more do you have to give?"

"Well… none, really. Like I said, I've been speeding it up, and I think it might even be starting to work, the TARDIS is… less er… uncomfortable now." He finished vaguely.

"You're gonna stop now though, yeah?" Rose asked, anxiously. She didn't want him giving away his whole bloody life to fix the mess that she'd made.

"Soon enough." He said, slightly impatiently. "Look Rose, why don't you go get some breakfast, I'll just be a…" that was when a loud shrilling echoed around the room.

"What's that?" Rose jumped to her feet, alert and ready for action.

"TARDIS telephone." The Doctor frowned jumping up with her. "Come on!"

Grinning broadly, she raced with him down the corridor, excitement and adrenaline coursing through her..

"Since when did the TARDIS take incoming calls?" she laughed, breathlessly as they both skidded into the console.

"It's a telephone box! Shush!" he picked up the old fashioned, plastic receiver. "Yes?"

"Jack!" He smiled widely.

"Yeah, she's fine. What's up?" he listened intently.

"Right, I'll be there in a minute. Where are you?" he nodded

"and… er… when are you?" Rose was almost bouncing as she listened to the Doctor's half of the conversation. It was Jack! Yay! They were going to see Jack again! Oh, she'd missed him!

"Okay, July 21st, 2014, oh… er… right." He put the phone down, rubbing the back of his neck, thoughtfully.

"I've never heard that ring before." She was shifting anxiously from foot to foot as she waited, poised and ready to go.

"No. Um, patched it into your mobile so Torchwood could contact us." He looked a bit sheepish.

"You've got my mobile? I thought I'd lost that!"

"Yeah, you dropped it when… um, when the Master took you."

"Oh… right, okay…" she shrugged it off. "So what's up then? Trouble?" She grinned widely.

"Uh, yeah, maybe… Jack thinks there's something that I need to see."

"2014, yeah?"

"Yup."

"Cool! I can't wait to see that!" she laughed, joyfully "Or should I say 'Ace!'" She joked, referring to her clothing.

"Yeah," He ignored her joke. "Except you're staying here."

"Yeah, right…" She grumbled, quietly "Yeah, we'll see…."


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor who.

**Chapter 17**

The TARDIS re-materialised with a bone-rattling judder, throwing them both violently to the floor.

"Sorry about that!" The Doctor yelled over the whining of the time rotor, jumping to his feet and resuming his position at the console, as Rose nursed her bruised elbow, wincing.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine!" she snapped, sarcastically.

"Oh." He looked at her, suddenly abashed. "Sorry, are you okay?"

"Nothin' that a few weeks in traction wouldn't fix." She grumbled. "Just try not to kill me the next time we land, yeah?"

"It's the other TARDIS." The Doctor explained, ignoring her flapping gestures that she was 'fine' as he examined her arm. "It's still unstable, threw this TARDIS out a bit – ooh! That looks a bit swollen, Rose." He prodded the sensitive tissue around her elbow causing it to explode in pain once again.

"Ow! Watch what you're doing!" she snatched her arm back.

"We'd better check that out." The Doctor shook his head worriedly. "I'll just get Jack to come into the TARDIS." He pressed a button in the console. "Jack! Change of plan, can you meet me in here?"

Rose heard the unmistakeable stuttering whistle of feedback.

"This ship's nine hundred years old and you still haven't sorted out the sound system?" She teased.

"Public address system." The Doctor murmured, steering her out of the console room. "Hardly ever use it… And the TARDIS isn't nine hundred years old, I am…. Give or take…."

"Hello?" Jack's voice boomed out.

"We're here." the Doctor replied, leading Rose into the sick bay.

"The doors were locked, I had to use my key!" Jack complained, following them in and then swinging himself up to sit on the counter.

"Yeah…" The Doctor nodded, as he tried to get Rose to keep still enough to scan her elbow. It was killing her and she was trying to hug it protectively to her chest.

"Why was it locked? What were you expecting to try to get in here?"

"Not get in… not _in_ as such." The Doctor murmured, glancing at Rose.

"What do you mean?" Jack swung back off the counter, his stance more alert as he looked around for danger. "There's something in here?"

"No, Jack." Rose laughed, humourlessly. "It's me. I'm not allowed out, apparently."

"You're grounded?" he grinned teasingly. "Tut, tut, tut, Rose, you bad girl! What did you do?"

"Ask him!" Rose chuckled, indicating the Doctor who was now applying a cold, soothing gel to Rose's arm.

"It's not broken but you shouldn't use it for a bit." He said, ignoring their banter then he turned to address Jack.

"How long's it been since you've seen me, Jack?"

"Err… two weeks ago, when we…."

"Stop right there!" The Doctor cut him off with a brisk wave. "Don't tell me! Looks like our timelines have got tangled up again."

"Why, how long's it been for you, Doctor?"

"I last saw you in 2006, when we got Rose out of that… place – I took off into the vortex, just for a few minutes, got waylaid a little bit and we haven't been back yet."

"Oh!" Jack looked stunned. "That's been a while then… so I guess I shouldn't tell you about what's been happening?"

"I think you can tell us why you called me here." The Doctor surmised, tightening the sling around Rose's arm. "Rose, keep still. I'm making a right mess here!"

Rose tugged away from him. "It's _fine_, Doctor!" She was impatient to hear what Jack had to say.

"Well…" Jack started hesitantly. "I've been keeping an eye on the CMB readings like you asked me to."

"Why would I ask you to do that? No… never mind." The Doctor cut off quickly as Jack opened his mouth to answer. He jumped up to sit beside Rose on the gurney. "So what have you found?"

"They've found another cold spot Doctor, and this one's huge."

"When you say 'another' cold spot, I'm assuming that you mean there's more than one?"

Jack nodded, "yeah, there was one identified in 2007"

"Why didn't you tell me?!" The Doctor demanded.

"I did, Doctor." Jack stated, slightly exasperated. "And you told me to keep an eye on the cosmic microwave background readings. Like I said."

"What's a cold spot?" Rose butted in.

"A void in space." Jack replied.

"So, what's that? Like the void the Cybermen came through?"

"Not necessarily, no." The Doctor answered her. "It's an area of space where there's no light being emitted… it's just black and empty."

"Like a black hole then?"

"Bigger." Jack supplied. "Much bigger."

"How big?" The Doctor asked.

" This latest one's one point eight billion light years across."

"That's…. that's big. Yeah." The Doctor's eyes widened. "And where is it?"

"Two point eight billion light years from Earth. Here, I've got a copy of the image of the cosmic microwave background." Jack reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of A4 paper. The Doctor jumped down from his perch to get a closer look and Rose joined him.

"Blimey!" The Doctor snatched the paper away from Jack. "But that's impossible!"

"What is it?" Rose demanded anxiously.

The Doctor just stared at the picture, stunned.

"Doctor! What is it?"

"The end of the universe." He answered in an awed whisper.

dwdwdwdwdwdw

Rose was reclined against the pillows on the bed in Ace's old room, absently toying with a frayed edge on her sling, picking at the threads she'd managed to loosen.

The Doctor and Jack had left the TARDIS to get more information. Rose had wondered if all this was the Master's doing but the Doctor was adamant that with the limited technology on Earth, even with the Master's superior intelligence, there was no way he could even remotely be responsible… there was something else going on, apparently... not that she was likely to find out. She sighed loudly.

But seeing as it had all happened at least two point eight billion years ago, Rose wondered what the sudden fuss was about now. She sighed again, bored, and slumped further into the mattress. She'd have liked to have gone out, to spend some time with Jack, he seemed emptier than when she'd last seen him, and a little bit lost, despite the bravado.

She growled in frustration, her boredom goading her into activity, even though she had nothing whatsoever to do. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed and hearing her doc martins clumping on the floor, she decided on a course of action. She was fed up of wearing Ace's clothes now, it had been fun for a while but she wanted to slide back into a pair of baggy jeans and trainers. She was going to find the TARDIS wardrobe.

The slight dimming of the lights in the TARDIS corridor indicated early evening. How long had the Doctor and Jack been gone now? It felt like hours. She didn't know what the time had been on Earth when they'd arrived but it must have been around noon considering the amount of time they'd been gone. She just wished they'd hurry back!

The corridor seemed to wind endlessly before her. Despite the inactivity of the last few hours, or maybe even because of it she was feeling a bit zoned out, there was a pleasant sort of humming in her head, lulling her. She passed the room with the photographs and then on a whim, turned back around to view them again.

Or more particularly one of them. The one that was not even a photograph, but an empty frame. She was drawn to it with a weird sort of fearful fascination.

Although the frame wasn't really empty anymore... There was definitely something there, something forming, a pale silhouette against the slightly paler background. Rose pressed up close to the frame. "Who are you?" she breathed? The frame didn't answer her though and all she managed to do was fog up the glass with her breath. She stepped back, watching the mist clear, hoping it would unveil something more, but the not-quite-a-photograph remained tantalisingly undecipherable.

She huffed out a sigh and left the room, heading deeper into the TARDIS only stopping when she reached another familiar door. This wasn't the wardrobe room she knew, but it was the room she'd found the Doctor tinkering in before. The room where he admitted he'd been giving away years of his life in an attempt to grow a new TARDIS. All in order to fix the mess that her future self had caused.

Something told her that she shouldn't go in there. The Doctor hadn't said anything about it but somehow it felt forbidden… she pondered the door for a moment but curiosity won over and she opened it carefully and looked around inside.

"Hello." She couldn't help but smile in delight when she saw the 'baby' TARDIS. It was still just a white column as it had been earlier but it seemed to be glowing now with a golden light that it hadn't had before.

"Aren't you just beautiful?!" she whispered softly as she entered the room. "I'm Rose, by the way. It's sort of my fault you're here." She continued, as she approached, plonking herself down on the floor, roughly where she'd found the Doctor the other day. She couldn't take her eyes of it, the light was just… enchanting her, filling her… becoming her… she reached out her hand to touch the smooth, white exterior…

The golden glowing light blazed incandescently at her touch, golden tongues of cool flame raced each other around the room, the pleasant hum that Rose had been hearing in her mind became an unbearable roar, she closed her eyes against the blinding light and slumped backwards as the pain in her head became too much to bear.

The golden flames curled in on themselves as the light flickered and died.


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor Who.

Thank you so much to everyone who's been reading this and for the follows, fave's and reviews. I'm getting close(ish) to the end now and although there are loads of things that I'll probably go back and change because they don't really say what I wanted them to – plus the continuity glitches – oops! Anyway… despite that, I'm loving writing it!

Reviews, as always, are really appreciated

**Chapter 18**

It was late afternoon in the centre of Cardiff. The August sun was still high in the sky and the heat was baking into every surface making pavements shimmer and the roads sticky. The rush hour traffic was a blare of horns and thick, choking fumes while pedestrians trudged, sluggishly through the muggy haze.

The Doctor and Jack were in a back street café and had been for a while. The sun blazed brightly through the large front windows, glaring blindingly off the wobbly, plastic table they were working on. Jack's skin was glistening and prickling uncomfortably with sweat.

It had taken him quite a while to find, and then illegally obtain, the access codes to the data captured by the NASA satellite, and he and the Doctor were now absorbed in translating the columns of numbers to draw a picture of the actual wavelengths being emitted around the void.

"I can't find anything wrong with the numbers…" The Doctor sighed, finishing the last of his now, cold tea. "I think it's really there Jack, or _not_ there if you get my meaning, but what I don't get is if it's been there all this time, how come I've not seen it before?"

He paused, thoughtfully as he pushed his mug away and sat back, palms on the table, looking up at the ceiling.

"That is, of cause, unless… maybe, it hasn't happened yet!" He finished with sudden fervour.

"You think that something happened in the future? And we're seeing it already?"

"Well, yeah, maybe…. Think about it, Jack! If something's powerful enough to cause a rip in space nearly two billion light years wide, then I think it's fair to assume that it would also be able to punch a hole in the universe big enough to cause the future to echo back into the past."

"You're talking about a wormhole?"

"Well… if that is the case, then this certainly ain't been caused by no worm!" the Doctor declared getting up. "Come on! I really need to get out there and see this!"

Just before they re-entered the TARDIS, the Doctor stalled Jack abruptly, with a hand on his sleeve.

"When I go out there I need you to stay here with Rose." The Doctor said seriously.

"You're leaving us behind?"

"I dunno what's out there. It's almost certainly dangerous and I don't want to expose Rose to anything like that. I told you, she's not supposed to be here. She's still not safe and Jack…" He, looked at his friend earnestly. "If I don't come back, there's no one I trust to keep her safe more than you."

"You think you might not come back? Doctor, then we should come with you!"

"Well… yeah, course I'll be back, course I will! Course! But… you know… just in case."

"Rose!" he called out as they stepped through the TARDIS doors into the empty console room. They'd left her disgruntled and sulky on the captain's chair, but they'd been gone for a few hours and she'd probably gone off into the TARDIS' interior, exploring.

"Rose!" he yelled even louder, blowing out a sigh of exasperation when there was no response. "Oh, right, typical… she's wandered off somewhere, come on – let's go find her."

The door to the room where he was growing the new TARDIS was slightly open. The Doctor frowned as he pushed it all the way and stepped inside, why would she come in here?

His breath caught in a horrified gasp when he saw her. She was lying next to the, now dormant, 'baby' TARDIS, her limbs bent awkwardly as though she had fallen.

"ROSE!" he rushed to her side, dropping to his knees, his hand sweeping her jaw to feel for a pulse. He breathed a pent up sigh of relief when he felt it, strong and normal.

"What happened?" Jack demanded, joining him.

"I dunno. She seems okay apart from the fact that she won't wake up. Breathing's normal, heart rate's normal, temperature's normal…"

He looked towards the almost formed TARDIS within the TARDIS.

"Unless…" he reached out to touch it, shocked when his hand encountered lifeless, cold, marble.

"Oh no!" he breathed, leaning back over her to pull her eyelids back, fully expecting to see a light pulsing behind her eyes, a light that would burn her out and kill her.

But there was nothing. Her eyes were clear… everything normal.

"Let's get her to the sickbay." The Doctor said, rapidly scooping her up.

"What's that?" Jack asked, indicating the white column.

"It's another TARDIS." The Doctor explained - unhelpfully, in Jack's opinion - as he carried Rose out of the room. Jack rushed ahead to get the doors.

"You've got two TARDIS's? You've never mentioned…"

"No, I've been growing it. To help Rose, only now it's… well I think it's dead."

The Doctor was perplexed. The new TARDIS, although still growing had seemed to be fulfilling its purpose well. His own TARDIS no longer screamed her agony in his head and had seemed content in helping to sustain the little growing life within her. If the new TARDIS was indeed dead then she should be screaming again, but she wasn't… in fact she was unusually silent as though her attention were elsewhere…

"How can it be dead? I mean, how can it even be alive in order to be dead?" Jack asked, impatiently as he helped the Doctor ease Rose onto the examination table.

"TARDIS's are sentient. They're grown, not built. It's a long story, Jack but I think something happened between Rose and the growing TARDIS."

But the tests he ran all told him the same thing. Everything was completely normal… there was no sign of illness or injury, no head trauma… nothing. Everything normal and healthy and good… apart from the fact that Rose could not be woken up…

dwdwdwdwdw

It was night-time, Rose decided as she sensed the blackness around her. Although maybe it wasn't night-time because night presumed the arrival of day and there was no daytime here. In fact, time didn't exist at all. Neither did the sun, or the Earth or the moon, or the stars… there was no purpose here… that was until now.

Just exactly now. Instantly, now. Where the empty nothingness which had been only timeless and black before, the endless dark suddenly shimmered with light and energy and time and meaning, as the solar system spun into existence around her.

And then she was falling. Falling into the void, but no. It couldn't be that. She'd done that, she remembered. She'd survived… and yet she was still falling. Until everything was harsh, and white and screaming in pain. The words Dårlig Ulv-Stranden carving the core out of her heart.

And then her perception switched, like changing the channel on a TV, and she was watching… watching as a dark skinned young woman hung a silver key around her neck and started running, running hand in hand and laughing with the Doctor. _Her_ Doctor. Rose growled, possessively.

And although Rose had no physical presence here, no body, no vocal chords, no voice… the dark skinned woman turned to look over her shoulder as though she'd heard.

And then the Doctor was alone again, and Rose's heart ached with the sadness she could feel from him. He shouldn't be alone, he needed a friend, someone to stop him… and she remembered Donna Noble, who's name rang so tunefully with the Doctor's – the Doctor-Donna – Rose spun a path through time to lead Donna back to him.

And then the little blue-green planet, which had been spinning so righteously, so purposefully, so very _there_, below her before, was suddenly gone. The moon, bereft of a mother to cling to, stuttered from its orbit and begun falling towards the Sun.

dwdwdwdwdw

And within a dusty, disused factory on the outskirts of London, a man suddenly stopped working. His hands fell to his sides and his screwdriver clattered noisily to the floor as his fingers, numb with shock, unclenched.

And the man listened, only that. Just listened, not moving and not thinking beyond what he was not hearing.

Because the drums had stopped beating.


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor Who.

I'm very sorry I've not written anything for ages. Work got really busy and then I just lost momentum in the story.

Massive thank you to everyone who's read, followed and reviewed this so far. It means a lot. It really does!

This following chapter was really, really difficult to write, but mostly because I haven't written anything for a while, it was hard to get back into it. I hope the result is not too awful!

(Particular thanks to the awesome SilverFX for the support, reviews and advice)

**Chapter 19**

Rose jerked violently awake in sudden alarm, her frenzied heart hammering at her sternum as if in a terrified bid to break out of her chest. She knew that face, that man!

Her scream choked off as the familiar sense of TARDIS and home seeped into her. She was safe, he wasn't here.

"Rose!" The Doctor breathed out loudly in profound relief. He'd been keeping vigil by her side ever since he'd found her collapsed. That had been four hours ago and despite running every test he could think of, he'd not been able to find anything that indicated that there was anything even remotely wrong with her.

He allowed himself a moment to cup her cheek in his hand as he beamed down at her, and then rushed about recollecting his equipment to run the tests again, now that she was awake.

"Doctor?" she blinked in bewilderment as he disappeared from her view again. "What am I doing in here? What's going on? …..Doctor?"

"You gave us quite a scare there, Rose Tyler." Jack appeared to the left of her vision. She hadn't noticed him before.

"Jack." She reached out a hand to him, hoping that he at least would keep still and give her a point to focus on. The Doctor's frantic scurrying around was making her feel dizzy.

Jack caught her hand is his and lifted it to kiss her knuckles briefly. "Can you remember what happened?"

"I saw the Master." Rose whispered fearfully.

"What?!" The Doctor stopped suddenly and spun to look at her, a sudden terror in his eyes. "The Master was in here? What did he do to you Rose?" he asked desperately as he dashed back to her side.

"No. Not in here." Rose hastened to explain. "Just before I woke up. I saw him."

"You dreamt of him?" The Doctor dropped his armful of medical equipment on the trolley next to her and took her hand. "That must've been quite frightening." He murmured, sympathetically.

"No. I didn't dream of him, I _saw_ him."

The Doctor exchanged a 'she's lost the plot' look with Jack.

"You saw him in here?" he asked, carefully.

"No. Not in here." Rose snapped impatiently, "He was in a warehouse or a factory or something…"

She sat up suddenly and rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands… "It's slipping away…. I can't…" she broke off, frustrated.

"Sounds like you had a very vivid dream." The Doctor's voice was soft and reassuring. "But you're safe here Rose."

"It's not… it _wasn't _a dream!" She protested. Shaking her head in frustration.

"Was there anything else? Did you see anything else?"

"I saw… yeah, I did. I saw you, Doctor. I saw you and this woman. Err…" she tailed off, the memories were rapidly shifting into a blur like a watercolour painting left out in the rain.

The Doctor's raised eyebrows prompted her for more but she just shook her head. She was sure that there was so much more locked down in her memory and she was sure there was something very important that she had to tell him but she couldn't access it.

"Can you remember what you were doing before you collapsed?" The Doctor asked her.

"I collapsed?" she looked up at him startled. "I don't remember that!" She frowned anxiously.

"We found you in the room with the… the _other_ TARDIS." The Doctor prompted.

"Oh... yeah. I did go in there yeah… err… I was…" she narrowed her eyes in confusion. "I don't remember." She admitted apologetically.

"Perhaps we should go back there?" Jack suggested.

The Doctor shot him a warning look. He didn't want Rose to have to deal with the fact that something she might've done could've broken the other TARDIS, especially after everything that had already happened.

"Yes!" Rose nodded, enthusiastically. "That might help." She swung her legs of the gurney, landing smoothly. Both the Doctor and Jack reached out to catch her but she didn't stumble.

"Rose. I'm not sure." The Doctor said, hesitantly, placing a gentle hand on her arm. "We don't know what happened to you. I don't think you should be walking about yet and I want to run some more tests."

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine!" She huffed, exasperated. "I feel great actually." And physically she did. There was that worrying recollection of the Master and something… something much bigger, but she couldn't remember what it was. Maybe being back with the other TARDIS would help her retrace what had happened.

She pulled her arm gently from his hand and reached under her sling to feel her elbow. The swelling and pain had completely gone. She grinned and pulled the sling away.

"Healed!" she declared, happily. Stretching her arm out as if to prove it no longer hurt.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes in concern but said nothing, preferring to let this play out for now. Rose did indeed look better than he'd seen her in a long time, fresh and healthy and full of energy but whatever had happened to her while he and Jack were out was still unexplained and therefore possibly dangerous.

There was a glow emitting from the room where the newly forming TARDIS was growing. They saw it even before they'd reached that stretch of corridor. The Doctor gasped lightly in shock. Only one thing could be doing that and it was the last thing he'd expected to see. The TARDIS had been dead, he'd seen it, he'd felt it. Or at least he'd felt the absence of it and that had been telling enough. But now, as the golden glow grew brighter, the singing began to fill his head. To be joined by the complex melody of his own TARDIS, no longer in pain but joyful, both voices intertwining harmoniously. He took off towards the room at a dead run, ignoring the alarmed shouts of the others.

There was no doubt about it. The 'baby' TARDIS, as Rose called it, was whole and complete… and that didn't make sense. Even with him giving away chunks of his life daily, it should've taken a few more weeks at least to complete. He turned to the others in stunned amazement.

"Doctor, what is it?" Rose demanded anxiously, gasping from the run. Unconsciously, it seemed, she begun to reach towards the glowing column as though to touch it.

"Don't!" The Doctor cried in alarm, catching her hand and leading her a few steps away from it. "I don't know what's happened here, but don't touch it Rose. Not yet anyway. Not until I've worked out what's going on."

"Why, what's wrong with it?"

"I dunno. Nothing, maybe. But she's grown…. So fast." He whispered in awe. "before, she was…." He broke off, spinning round to look into Rose's puzzled brown eyes. "What happened when you were in here earlier, Rose? Do you remember?"

She frowned in confusion. "Sort of. I was sittin' next to it and then…" She closed her eyes, concentrating hard, trying to remember. "I touched…" her eyes snapped open as the memory flooded through her.

"I was in space!" She grabbed the Doctor's sleeve, as she looked up at him excitedly. "I watched the Sun and planets form right in front of me! I saw you, an' this other woman an' Donna!"

"Donna Noble?" the Doctor's eyebrows drew so close together in his bewilderment that they almost formed one unbroken line.

"Yes! An' then… then the Earth was gone. It just disappeared and then I saw the Master but… it was like it _was_ him, but it _wasn't _him. Does that make sense?"

"No." The Doctor shook his head slowly as he eyed her warily. "Rose, do you think you might've hit your head at all when you fell?"

"No!" she shouted, exasperated. "It wasn't like that, it was real!"

"Can I?" he asked, his eyes pleading as he reached his fingers towards her temples.

She considered saying 'no' out of pure annoyance, but this might be the quickest way to get the Doctor to see. She sighed and nodded.

Reliving it through the Doctor, the images were crisper and cleaner than she'd remembered them. She felt him gasp mentally as the Solar System was born beneath her, and felt his curiosity as the memory played out ending with shock at the sudden vanishing of the Earth. When she opened her eyes again in the TARDIS she was lying on the cool floor, the Doctor sitting beside her, staring at her in awe.

"You saw?" she didn't really need to ask, she knew.

He nodded.

"What was that?" she asked desperately.

"I was hoping to ask you the same question." He was smiling joyfully, almost proudly, Rose thought.

She shook her head and sat up slowly.

"You, Rose Tyler." He grinned widely at her, his eyes shining with delight. "Are BRILLIANT!" He jumped to his feet, pulling her up with him exuberantly.

"Wha' did I do?" she stammered, pleased and shocked at the same time.

"I dunno what you did, how you did it, but what you saw… no human should ever have been able to see, which meeeaans…" he pulled her over to the white column of the newly formed TARDIS, that you connected with this… her." he corrected himself. "When you touched the TARDIS, she showed you what she thought you needed to see… or maybe…" he mused, quietly, "what I needed to see."

"Anyway…" he shook his head to reign in his racing thoughts. "It's even more important that I see what's going on out there – it's connected. It's got to be connected!"

"Jack!" The ex-time agent had been strangely silent throughout all this. "I need you and Rose to get some information from Torchwood." He gave a meaningful look.

"Right." Jack nodded, catching the intention.

"But, what are _you_ going to do?" Rose protested.

"I'm going to be doing some research from here." The Doctor answered, guardedly.

"You're not going anywhere?" she asked anxiously.

"Nope."

"'Kay." She nodded a little uncertainly.

The whirring and whooshing of the TARDIS started as soon as she and Jack were a couple of metres away from the door. Rose spun in alarm, running back to the rapidly dematerialising ship.

"Doctor!" She screamed.

"Rose, it's no use." Jack tried to hold her back but her desperation gave her strength and she wriggled out of his grasp, launching towards the, now transparent looking, blue doors. What she hit was surprisingly solid though. The TARDIS was gone but in its place was a white column structure with a hard surface. A very hard surface, Rose rubbed her shoulder ruefully.

"It's the other TARDIS." Jack's brow furrowed with concern. "I don't think he meant to leave that here."

"You knew he was going?" Rose accused.

Jack shrugged. "He said he had to."

"Where's he gone? Why did he leave me… _us_ behind?" she bit her lip to hold back the sob fighting its way up her throat. Getting tearful now was not going to help her case."

"You know where he's gone. And you know why he had to go alone." Jack stated simply.

"That black hole thing?"

He nodded. "He asked me to keep you safe."

"When's he coming back?"

Jack shrugged. "I honestly don't know, Rose."

"He _is_ coming back isn't he?" she felt a hard jolt of fear run through her core as she said this.

Jack just looked at her.

"We could follow him…." She said desperately, jerking her head towards the other TARDIS.

"Rose, neither of us knows how to fly that thing!"

"Bet I know someone who does." Her face was set with grim determination.

"What do you mean? Who, Rose?"

"The Master."


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: **None of this belongs to me

It's late but I wanted to get some more written and posted while I was sitting by my laptop anyway. This chapter's a little shorter than most, sorry about that. Although I'm hoping to be able to start posting frequently again.  
Hope you enjoy it.

**Chapter 20**

It was a calm, warm summer evening in central Cardiff. The sun was low and beginning to turn a dusty orange colour, reflecting in a fiery glare off the glass shop fronts and offices. The traffic had reduced to a steady, lazy trickle as most people were now at home after finishing a day's work. A few shoppers straggled with weary hopefulness through the high street, but the majority of the shops, save a few convenience stores, were now closed for the night.

Compared to the noisy bustle of the early afternoon it was decidedly still and tranquil. Or at least it would've been if it weren't for the two people arguing loudly and heatedly in the street.

"There's no way, Rose!" The dark haired man's voice was loud enough to echo in the close space between the buildings.

"It's our only option!" The blonde woman's retorting shout was only slighter lower in volume, but her voice had a tendency to shrill the louder she shouted.

The few remaining shoppers either stopped and stared, or hurried along, heads down, not wanting to get involved.

"Are you out of your MIND? You know what happened last time! I can't believe you're even suggesting this!" A handful of pigeons pecking hopefully on the pavement outside the baker shop scattered with a frenzy of flapping wings at the blast of noise.

"Well I'm going to find him." Rose's voice was a muted whisper, her throat raw from shouting. She turned away from her friend.

A strong hand snagged her jacket, pulling her roughly back. Thankful that she was still wearing Ace's over-large bomber jacket, she slipped her arms free and started to run, quickly breaking into a sprint.

She heard him yelling behind her as he gave chase but she ignored him. Knowing she was probably faster than him over a short distance but that he had more stamina, she just had to lose him quickly. Cursing the Doctor Martin's for their loud, heavy tread she turned abruptly down an alleyway startling a ginger and white cat into a yowl of protest as she sprinted down the narrow passage, her footfalls echoing alarmingly around her. At the end of the alleyway was a large, open field and she took off, running flat out into the gathering dusk.

dwdwdw

It was one of those times when all the Doctor could do was scratch his head in perplexity. Two point eight billion light-years from Earth, give or take, and there was nothing untoward here at all. In fact, all he'd found was the glorious explosion of light and colour that was the Medusa Cascade. And the whole point of it was, that there _was_ light and colour here… not that enormous dark blip suggested by the NASA satellite data.

He'd even skipped both ways in time but there was nothing about this sector in space to explain what they'd seen on the CMB readings. Nothing at all…

He rubbed his face tiredly with his palms, deflated. He'd been so certain he'd find the answer here. Or at least enough of an answer for him to know what the bloody question was.

His thoughts led to him pacing and his pacing led him down the corridor to the room where he'd grown the new TARDIS. Maybe he'd find a clue there. Something inside his ship had switched around though and the room he entered wasn't the large, airy zero room he'd been using for the TARDIS's development, but the gallery he'd entered before. The one that had upset Rose so much.

His eyes were immediately drawn to the frame on the wall that had caught his attention before, the one with the fuzzy, blurry out of focus suggestion of a picture. Only it wasn't fuzzy or blurry or out of focus anymore.

The Doctor stared at it in sudden shock, his eyes darkening as his pupils widened in alarm.

What did this mean?

dwdwdw

By the time Rose reached the bank of trees at the far side of the field her chest was burning with each ragged breath she took. There was no time to rest though, she knew that Jack wasn't far behind her and that this was her only opportunity to lose him. She had to get to London, she knew where to find the Master. The vision – or whatever it was – had shown her.

And since she'd relived that vision through the Doctor's thoughts, she'd known on some deep down level that the Master wouldn't hurt her now. Something fundamental, something massive had changed. From a logical point of view she knew what she was doing should be viewed as utterly insane. In fact Jack had described it with words of a similar meaning, although far, far less polite.

But it wasn't logic driving her now. It was that deep, gut instinct that's so overwhelming it demands to be heard. That human trait that the Doctor was so frequently in awe of, but which Rose had never really understood until now.

With a silent tribute to her bronze gymnastics medal, Rose swung herself into the branches of a nearby tree and settled among the foliage, fighting to calm and quiet her breathing. Once again thanking her, or rather, Ace's attire, the black blended in nicely with the shadows.

dwdwdw

"Rose…" he breathed, his fingertips brushing lightly against the surface of the photograph.

She looked older, like she had been when she'd stopped herself from falling into the void. She was wearing that same blue jacket and her makeup was muted.

How could this be? What did it mean? He checked around again. None of his other companions had two pictures in this gallery. Just her. How did she get to be in here twice? And was this _his_ Rose he was seeing? Or the future version of herself that he'd seen in Torchwood? No… it couldn't be that, she'd erased her own existence just by being there.

Well… he'd been looking for answers and he'd found more questions. This might be a clue though. Although a clue to _what_ he had no idea. He wished Rose were here, maybe there was something about her that he'd missed. Something subtle that had happened during her blackout that could put some meaning to what he was seeing.

He'd just made up his mind to take the TARDIS back to Cardiff to collect Rose and Jack when the telephone started ringing shrilly in the Console room.

Scattering his thoughts about the photograph he ran back down the corridor, snatching the handset up on its fifth ring.

The rapid bleeping noise abruptly cut off his greeting. What was that? It sounded like… No! It couldn't be…. It was! The rapid-fire beeps were trilling out space-time coordinates through a sub-wave network!

"Oh, you clever, clever people!" he breathed in awe. The coordinates were directing him to a point just one second in the future. Whatever it was he'd been trying to find, it had been set slightly out of sync with the rest of the universe.

With a flourish and a manic grin he slipped back into the vortex.


End file.
